JT the Fighter: Edited
by robins princess starfire
Summary: Hey guys it's been a long time coming but this is the edited verson of JT. It's still the same concept of of seeing Jim Kirk's experience on Tarsus IV through the eyes of an old friend & i hope you enjoy it! I look foward to reading your comments! :D
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Alright guys it's been a long time coming but i finially got my lazy butt up and reposted the story! I owe a big thank you to Captainquirk1701 and Rayrae118 for all of their help in editing this story! i think it's ten times better then what it was because of them and i hope you do to.

Hopefully now it won't be so hard to read because of grammar and spelling mistakes. **I HOPE YOU ENJOY AND PLEASE R&R!**

Edited chapter 1

My name is Tom Leighton. I am 10 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, and 2 days old. My world is about to change forever.

It was a normal peaceful day, the sort so common on Tarsus IV. Everything was so calm that the thought of anything bad happening was almost laughable.

Well, when something bad finally did strike our paradise in space, no one was laughing.

It started for me when my dad came back from the science lab where he worked with a worried, almost scared expression on his face.

"Mary Ann, Tom, Kelsey, meet me in the family room now!" he hollered, his voice echoing through the small cottage. His voice was tighter than usual, with none of the natural warmth it normally held when he spoke to us.

I was already in the family room, so I just switched the T.V. off and turned my attention to Dad as he stepped in to the room. A second later my mom and little sister appeared from the kitchen, where they had been baking cookies.

My father was pacing around the room like a caged tiger, mumbling weird half-sentences about fungus, eating, gone, store, danger, Kodos, the fields. He glanced up as Mom and Kelsey walked in, and his eyes flickered down to their powder-covered aprons and suddenly flared up with uncharacteristic anger.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" He shouted, making us all jump.

My mom, whose eyes had gone wide at the outburst, stuttered for a second before finally getting the words out: "Making cookies, dear."

"Oh, you're making COOKIES are you?" Dad growled.

"Just oh-so-harmlessly spending our limited amount of food on sugary treats! Don't you have enough for the things we got through not to go carelessly tossing them in the garbage just to satisfy your sweet tooth? You ungrateful little brats! You should only be eating when you're hungry! From now on, no more snacks! And any time you want something to eat, you have to tell me first. Do you understand?"

My dad finished his rant by suddenly grabbing the antique lamp that had been passed down in his family since the early twenty-first century and chucking across the room and into the opposite wall. Mom and Kelsey's eyeswere as big as saucers, a look that i was sure i was mirroring as well.

"RICHARD!" my mother screamed as little Kelsey began to cry, "Stop! You're scaring the children!"

Mom's words, however, were unnecessary, because the second the sound of the shattering lamp stopped, regret filled my father's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Mary Ann…I'm sorry, kids," Dad sighed. His voice was more tired than I had ever heard it, and it looked as if he had aged 20 years between the time he had left this morning and the time he stomped back in.

"Tom…Kelsey…kids, go to your rooms. Let me talk to your mother for a bit, OK?" Dad whispered, squeezing the bridge of his nose like he had a terrible headache.

Too shocked to argue that it was unfair for us to be sent to our rooms when we had done nothing wrong, I put my arm around Kelsey's shoulder and guided her down the hallway.

As soon as I was in my room, though, I tossed myself onto my bed, my shock melting into anger at the unfair treatment.

I didn't have time to let it brew, however, because less than two minutes after I entered my room the door opened. Assuming it was my parents, I just curled tighter into a ball and ignored it.

That is, till I heard the soft sniffle. Turning, I barely had time to brace myself as Kelsey suddenly launched herself from the doorway and into my arms.

"Tommy, why is daddy so angry with us?" Kelsey sobbed into my shoulder as I slowly sat up.

"Shush Kelly, Daddy isn't mad at us. He's just mad about something." Even as I said it, I knew that wasn't going to be of any real comfort.

"But what is he mad about, Tommy? Why is he yelling and throwing things?" Kelsey persisted.

"I don't know, Kelly. I don't know."

Kelsey's questioning, tear-filled eyes were fixed on me, but before she could open her mouth again my door opened and my parents trudged into my room.

Mom was crying into Dad's old handkerchief and Dad, if such a thing was possible, looked even more strained then he had before.

"Tommy…Kelly…I'm sorry, but we've got to talk," Dad said as Mom let out a hard sob and buried her face into his neck.

Kelsey almost immediately let go of me and flung herself at Mom.

"Don't cry, mommy! It's okay, whatever it is it can't be that bad, can it?" She asked, staring innocently up at Mom.

I didn't know it then, but that would be one of the last few innocent things I heard or saw for a very long time.

Mom picked her head up and looked at Kelly for a second before dropping to her knees and pulling her into a tight hug.

"My precious baby ….My innocent, beautiful little angel," Mom sobbed into Kelsey's hair, "How I wish this wasn't happening."

Alarmed by my mother's action, I quickly ran forward.

"MOM! DAD! What's going on?" I demanded, feeling panic build in my stomach as my parents continued to look defeated.

Mom barely glanced at me before pulling me down into the tight hug she had Kelsey trapped in.

I didn't say anything, and after a few seconds of seeing nothing but the blue of my mother's shirt as my face was pressed into her shoulder, hearing nothing but heartbroken sobs, and feeling nothing but the cotton from her clothing and the violent tremors shaking her body, I heard my dad drop to his knees, joining us on the floor, and felt his strong warm arms wrap around us protectively.

Then, as my mom's sobs slowly began to quiet down, my dad explained what had happened, holding us as if he hoped to somehow shield us from the horrors to come. None of us could ever have imagined just how truly bad it was going to be in just a few short weeks.

It seemed that a fungus unlike any that had been seen before was eating away at the main fields that provided food for the colony. It would be weeks before Starfleet would even receive the message that Tarsus IV was in danger, and weeks after that before they finally got here to drop off supplies and food rations. It was suspected that before then most of the food would be gone and over half the population would be starving.

People could only go thirty days without food, I knew, and it would be nearly double that time before Starfleet got here. At my age, only a couple of things made sense to me: we would be more hungry than normal, we weren't allowed to eat anything without Mommy or Daddy's permission, we would be storing food in the cellar below the house, and under no circumstances were we allowed to tell anyone where we were hiding our food, not even our friends.

We stayed still, hugging each other, long after Dad finished talking. Kelsey had already fallen asleep by the time Dad and Mom finally released us, and as he carried her into her room he told me to do the same, that it was late and I would need rest.

I was tired from the emotional turns of the day, but it was only 8:30. Since it was summer, the  
>sun was just starting to set, coloring the end of the fields outside my window a deep gold.<p>

I was just beginning to drift off when I heard a voice at my door. Reluctantly, I pulled my eyes open and rolled to face the sound. My father's silhouette against the dull light from the hallway greeted my tired eyes.

With a sigh, my dad stepped into the room, closing the door. He walked towards me, his slow and measured steps so hypnotizing that I almost fell asleep again, and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Thomas…Tommy…Tom…" He seemed to have trouble deciding what name he wanted to called me by. "Listen, son. First I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. It was uncalled for, and I'm sorry."

I frowned, my mind once again on the brink of shutting down. He was still on about that? From what I could gather, he had perfect reasons to be upset.

"It's okay, Dad. I understand," I whispered

I expected him to nod his head, maybe ruffle my hair or give a small weak smile and then leave, but he didn't.

"…Tom….I need to ask you a favor. Do you think you could do something for me?" he asked.

My thoughts were starting to blur together, but I managed to nod and reply

"Sure, wha…what's that?"

"Tom…starvation can do funny things to people. I need you to promise me, if something happens to your mother or me, that you'll protect Kelsey. Keep her safe. Can you do that for me?" Dad whispered.

By now his voice was so far away I wasn't sure if I was dreaming or not.

"Sure, Dad. I promise," I heard myself say mechanically.

And then I felt the pressure lift off my bed, the lightest ruffle of myhair, and a breezy "Thank you, son" near my ear. My father slowly began to leave.

The last things I remember after that were a whisper so low I was sure I dreamt it: "Remember, son," and the smell of burned chocolate chip cookies floating down from the kitchen into my room and making my stomach rumble. The vague thought that I had gone to bed without dinner was all my mind could register before I drifted off to sleep.

It was nowhere near the last time that thought would cross my mind.


	2. Chapter 2

A/n well here it is the new and improved chapter 2! again thanks to CaptainQuirk1701 and Rayrae118 for all their help and i hope you enjoy this chapter as much as i enjoyed writing it! please R&R!

Chapter 2

My name is Tom Leighton. I am 10 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 4 days old.

"Where's Starfleet" are the most common words running through my thoughts.

Two months ago, the top scientists of Tarsus IV, my dad among them, discovered a fungus eating away at the only food sources on the planet. They estimated it would eat through most of the fields in a couple of weeks. The guess wasn't even close. It had only taken 4 days.

Now, weeks afterwards, the fields were practically gone and there was little for us to eat.

No one had imagined the fungus would work this quickly, so we hadn't had time to go to the store and collect food to store away.

When Mom finally did get to the store, she had returned with a black eye, scratch marks littering her arms, and three broken knuckles…all for a box of cereal, a can of beef broth, a jar with a single pickle in it, and a small carton of milk. As Dad had warned us, the fear of starvation had turned everyone into animals, and that was just in the first few days! It was only thanks to God that people had had some food before all this started. Otherwise, they would have become hungry enough to kill.

Our cabinets were bare and our tiny store of food rapidly vanishing, despite the fact that everyone, even little 7-year-old Kelsey, was being careful of how much they ate. I realized that similar things were happening to other families and soon things would start getting violent.

…It was the night before I learned the meaning of "all hell broke loose".

Dad came home from the labs with a slam of the door, whispering anxiously. It had become such a common occurrence in these last few months that I barely even glanced up.

Strangely, even when he saw me he didn't stop murmuring to himself. After his first night, when he came home so angry that he broke his lamp, Dad had been careful of showing any worry around us kids.

Fear gripped my weakened and thin stomach when I noticed this. Whatever was bothering Dad enough to make him lose control in front of me had to be bad.

"How could things possibly get worse?" I thought, as I looked Dad up and down.

His shirt, which had fit him two months ago, now had to be at least two sizes too big. His pants, which had once seemed almost too tight, were now being held up by an old leather belt adjusted to nearly half its full size. I knew mom, Kelsey, myself, and the rest of the Tarsus IV population weren't doing mcuh better.

"Haven't we suffered enough?" I thought to myself, anger boiling in the pit of my stomach. "Where the heck is Starfleet? They should be here by now! Don't they care about as at all?"

"Tom," Dad sighed, running his fingers through his hair in agitation, "Go find Kelsey and take her to your room. Your mother and I will be there shortly, but we have to talk grown-up to grown-up for a moment."

Without hesitation, I nodded my head and went to the front door, trying not to show how much my father's actions were scaring me.

The last time I had seen my sister, she had been outside on her old tire swing. She had a wishful look on her face, like she wanted to swing back in time to a happier moment, when Daddy didn't come home whispering like a madman, Mommy didn't cry, and her belly was comfortably full.

As I stepped out into the front lawn, my eyes immediately fell on one of the old trees that stood just a couple of feet from the side walk. Hanging from its branches was Kelsey's old and well-used tire swing, empty and abandoned.

I felt my heart speed up, and fear gripped my stomach in what was becoming a far-too-familiar feeling.

I had looked outside ten minutes ago and she had been there.

I knew Dad would have said something before I went outside if Kelsey hadn't been in her swing when he came home.

I would have heard the door open if she had come in.

So where was she?

Dad had to have been home no more than 5 minutes, so Kelsey couldn't have gotten far.

I swept my eyes from one end of the block to the next, and sure enough, I saw two figures. They were staring into the windows of the old Andersons candy store, which had been ransacked, robbed and burnt down just a couple of weeks ago by a man petrified by the troubles to come.

I sighed in relief and annoyance as I identified the midnight black hair and tiny build of my sister and started walking towards the pair.

As I got closer, I recognized the person she was standing with.

It was a man that, if I had to guess, was probably in his early to mid-thirties, with greasy brown hair and hard hazel eyes.

He was one of governor Kodos's armed guards, who had been posted to our block after the first week to keep people from destroying everything in a panic.

The closer I got, the more apparent it was that the man wasn't looking in the store window in hope of seeing a sweet treat that may have survived the flames, but rather was looking at Kelsey.

The expression on his face, though, was the same that a starving person might give to a piece of candy: a look of wild hunger that I knew wasn't a good thing for little Kelsey.

The man suddenly reached up and stroked Kelsey's midnight locks, then grabbed her arm. I felt a shiver run up my spine and I knew straight away that I needed to get Kelsey out of the man's sight. I picked up my pace until I was in a dead run.

"Kelsey!" I called, hoping that my voice would be enough to get the man's attention away from my sister.

They both turned to look at me, and as I stopped next to them the man let go of Kelsey's arm.

Breathing hard and watching the man warily, I told Kelsey about dad wanting to talk to us. Kelsey, who was looking at the man with big startled eyes, just nodded and stepped closer to grab my hand.

For a moment, though, I couldn't move. I locked eyes with the man, and the ice ball that had taken up residence in my stomach grew. Being ten, I was starting to recognize the different "vibes" good people and bad people gave off, and I knew this guy was not good news. The look in his eyes made fear seep into my bones, although he was smiling at us in a way that to anyone else would have looked warm and amused.

"Well, I guess you'd better hustle along then, kids," The guy chuckled, his voice smooth and friendly.

With a nod, I turned and tugged Kelsey along, probably a little faster than I should have, seeing how much smaller she is. I nearly dragged her off her feet in my haste to get her away from the man.

It wasn't till we were inside with the door closed that I relaxed. Kelsey was now safe, away from the man's gaze.

In true little-kid fashion, she seemed to have forgotten all about the man now, and headed for my room. I followed, making a mental note to tell Dad what had happened when I got the chance.

When Kelsey and I walked into my room, my parents were there waiting for us. Mom was sitting next to Dad in one of the two fold-up chairs that they brought whenever we were going to have a particularly long talk.

I froze in the doorway.

My family, who had been so healthy barely two months ago, looked ragged and frighteningly thin. Mom, who had always been small anyway, was constantly tugging the collar of her shirt up a bit, and wore a belt tightened to its smallest size. Kelsey's jeans were sagging so low on her tiny legs that the only thing covering the top of her underwear was her long shirt, which looked almost like a dress. Everyone was a bit paler, with dark rings forming around their eyes and skin stretched taut over their cheekbones.

I glanced in the mirror hanging on my door. My own clothing was sagging a bit, though the shorts I wore had a drawstring and so didn't hang off my waist like Dad's, Mom's, and Kelsey's did. But my shirt was just as baggy as theirs, sliding down to expose one of my bony shoulders. Underneath the fabric, I could see the ladder of my rib cage becoming more and more noticeable. My face was as  
>pale as theirs, with the same darkness around the eyes.<p>

"Where's Starfleet?" I bitterly asked myself, trying to swallow past the sudden lump in my throat and moving to take my place next to Kelsey on the bed.

Almost immediately, Kelsey snuggled up against me like she used to when we were younger and listening to bedtime stories from our parents. Like I used to then, I wrapped my arm around her waist, trying to ignore the way her hips seemed to stab at my thigh.

"Kids," Dad sighed, "Governor Kodos dropped by the lab today…it seems like it's going to take Starfleet a bit longer than we thought to get here. The relief ships they sent out were attacked by a couple of Klingon warbirds two days ago…"

Dad trailed off for a second, but I hardly noticed. Rage was burning its way through my veins like a deadly poison. Tarsus needed food now! Even a four-year-old could see that! And the stupid Klingons had just doomed everyone on Tarsus IV to another two months of starvation.

"But things should be okay now!" Dad exclaimed suddenly, his words catching my attention again. "Governor Kodos said he has a plan to make things a bit easier on every one, and he'll have it started tomorrow."

Dad's voice sounded cheerful for the first time in months, but somehow apprehensive at the same time.

"What's he scared about?" I thought to myself. "This is the best news we had heard in months!"

"In fact," Mom broke in, "Kodos has invited us and 200 other guests to join him tomorrow in the square, where he'll explain how he's going to solve the problem!" Mom's voice, unlike Dad's, was confident and happy. For the first time in what felt like forever, a genuine smile graced her face. I could practically feel the excitement and joy rolling off of her.

Mom's excitement seemed to relight Kelsey's flame, because suddenly she leapt from my side with a happy squeal and wrapped her arms around our parents' necks, forcing them to bend down and wrap one arm each around her as she started bouncing.

For a second, a grin spread across my own face and I almost copied Kelsey. But the look in my dad's eyes stopped me in my tracks.

It was a look of fear and suspicion, and it wiped the grin off my face in a heartbeat.

Something was wrong with Dad, and I couldn't figure out what it was. I mean, here we were, getting the best news we'd heard in a long time, and Dad was acting as though he didn't trust it.

The meeting only lasted a few more minutes before Mom and Dad told us to get some rest. By that time I had put my thoughts about the look in Dads' eyes away and my happiness had returned. I crawled into bed with a broad smile, for the first time in so long that it made my cheeks ache. I fell asleep soon afterwards, the smile never leaving my face.

When I woke up it was still dark outside. Glancing at the clock by my bed, I saw that it was only 12:30 AM. Over the course of the past two months, it had become common for us to be woken by hunger pangs in the middle of the night.

Just great. My dreams, which had been my only escape from reality lately, had been interrupted, and I doubted I'd be able to get back to sleep easily. With an irritated grumble, I pulled myself out of bed and headed towards the kitchen, hoping a glass of water would help me ignore my hunger for a little while longer.

It was on my way there however that, I remembered what Mom and Dad had told us about Kodos, and it was all I could do not to whistle an annoyingly happy tune as i stepped into the kitchen to grab a glass.

As I was on my back to my room though I heard my parents whispering in their room. For a second I considered just walking back to my room, but curiosity got the better of me. I tiptoed over to their door, put my ear to it, to listened in.

"Really, Richard, I don't see why you're so worried. I mean, this is the best news possible. Kodos has finally found a way to help us! And yet, you act like you're facing a rampaging bull with only a pin whistle. Why?" Mom whispered.

"Yeah, why," I thought to myself, Dad's concerned expression coming back to haunt my mind.

"I don't know, Mary Ann. I just have this bad feeling, that's all. When the governor dropped by today, he asked if we had any solutions to fix the fungus problem. Of course, we said we didn't. Then he gave us this weird assessing look, and said he had a way to fix the problem, before turning and walking out. I don't know why, but I felt like I was being condemned rather than reassured. Then later, as I was leaving, he stopped me and told me he wanted me there tomorrow to see what he was going to do. He told me to be sure to bring my family. The look in his eye when he looked at me…it was like he thought he was so much better than me…better than my family. He looked at me…like I was a …a bug that needed squishing," Dad choked out, sounding as though he were literally drowning in stress and fear.

I felt my frown deepen as chill settled deep in the pit of my stomach. I had never heard Dad say things like that, and I had certainly never heard him so scared.

"Oh honey, it's probably just stress on both your parts. I'm sure he didn't actually mean to come across that way," Mom soothed gently.

"Yeah, maybe," Dad sighed, sounding beaten.

"Tommy." A soft voice whispered behind me all of a sudden.

I spun around to find Kelsey in her light pink PJs, clutching the teddy bear she had fondly named Tom-Tom after me, and staring at me with her wide emerald green eyes.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice curious but thankfully still quiet.

"Nothing," I whispered, straightening up.

Thankfully, Kelsey didn't seem in a mood to press the issue.

"Tommy, can me and Tom-Tom sleep in your room? We had a nightmare," Kelsey whispered, quivering a bit with fear.

I tried to give her a comforting smile, but my mind was too preoccupied for the expression to look genuine.

"Sure, Kelly," I replied, and swung my arm around her shoulder, guiding her back to my room.

When we got back, I let her crawl into bed and lie down next to the wall before lying down myself. I felt exhaustion pulling at my eyelids, but just as I was about to fall asleep again I heard Kelsey say something. Reluctantly, I pulled my eyelids apart and rolled over to look at her.

"I'm sorry, Kelly, what was that?" I asked, exhaustion coloring my voice.

Couldn't she just shut up and quit fidgeting?

"I said, do you think Kodos really can help us?" Kelsey repeated.

I sighed, but her voice was so hopeful that I couldn't bear to tell her what I'd heard Dad saying.

"Yeah, Kelly, I do. Now please go to sleep," I said. As soon as the words left my mouth, I winced: I hadn't meant to let my annoyance show. Still, I was too tired to feel guilty for long.

I was just drifting off again when something else woke me. Kelsey had leaned over and very gently kissed my cheek.

"Thank you, big brother, for letting me stay the night in here…that dream really scared me," I heard Kelsey whisper.

Now I really felt guilty. I reached out for her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. When I felt her squeeze my hand back, I allowed myself to fall asleep again, smiling for the second time that night.

My name is Tom Leighton. I am 10 years, 8 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days old.

When I woke up again, it was light out and Kelsey was shaking my shoulder.

"Mommy said it's time to wake up and get ready to go to the square!" Kelsey exclaimed, her excitement apparent to even my half-asleep brain.

I groaned and nodded as she jumped up and cheerily skipped out of the room.

The sound of her so happy was enough to drag me out bed, and I slowly walked over to my closet. Digging around for a second, I found my favorite pair of jeans and the T-shirt with my favorite band's logo on it. I was starting to feel pretty excited as well.

I quickly put on the clothes, sighing as I grabbed a belt to hold up my pants and tugged up the slipping shoulders of the shirt. The only thing that fit me anymore was my sneakers. Normally, I would have been upset by this, but I pushed the unpleasant thoughts from my head, promising myself that today would change everything and I could finally start regaining the weight I had lost.

"Tom lets go! We are going to be late!" Dad yelled down the hallway agitation clear in his voice for all to hear.

With that, I rushed out and met my parents and Kelsey by the front door.

The first thing I noticed when I got there was that Dad was as pale as a sheet and wouldn't stop fidgeting.

Last night came back to me in a rush, and I knew his fears had only intensified since then. Uncomfortable with seeing my dad, who had always seemed so strong, look like he was about to bolt towards the mountains, I turned my attention to Mom and Kelsey. They were practically glowing with happiness, and a smile spread across my face to match theirs.

From where I stood I could hear Kelsey's stomach rumbling. No dinner last night and no breakfast this morning meant we had to be incredibly low on food.

"Kodos, you'd better have a good plan," I thought to myself, trying to ignore my own complaining stomach and reaching forward to give Kelsey's shoulder a reassuring pat.

"Let's go," said Mom, losing her glow a little as she looked sadly at her hungry children.

With that, Mom put her hands on Kelsey's and my shoulders to guide us out and Dad touching the small of Mom's back to guide her through the door.

We were mostly quiet on the way there, each lost in our own thoughts, though Kelsey occasionally broke the silence to ask a question or hum a tune.

When reached the square, I felt my breath catch. There were so many people there! I mean, Mom had told us there would be at least two hundred, but it looked more like two thousand!

It looked like Kelsey and I were the only children there, and that most of the families without kids had been invited. I tried not to feel to smug that Kelsey and I were the first children who had the honor of being the first to find out about Kodos's plan. But that feeling was stopped in it's tracks anyway as Kelsey tugged on my hand.

"Who's that?" she asked, pointing in the direction of the courthouse wall. She sounded curious and awed at the same time.

Huh. I hadn't realized that I could name everyone in this square until Kelsey pointed out the one person I didn't know. He looked a little older than me, and was the only one in the crowd who looked bored rather than curious or excited. He was also the skinniest, I noted.

His blonde hair was a ruffled mess, like he had been constantly running his fingers through the golden locks. He wore faded blue jeans tied around his waist with rope, a black shirt that, like everything else, sagged a little, and a brown leather jacket, the kind you'd wear while riding a motorcycle. The jacket was baggier than all of his other clothes, as though it were made for an adult rather than a young teenager.

But it was his eyes that caught and held my attention. They had to be the bluest blue eyes I had ever seen in my life. As cheesy as it sounds, they reminded me of the sky on Earth. (On Tarsus, the sky was purple.) They were pretty eyes, that's for sure, and they were taking in everything from where he leaned against the brick wall. The thought "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't important" was written clear as day in those eyes.

Suddenly, his gaze settled on something, and I saw something besides boredom enter the boy's eyes…suspicion, maybe? Curious, I followed his gaze, and found myself looking at a long line of Kodos's men, all holding phaser rifles. For a second I felt fear grip me again, but logic pushed it away.

"Kodos is probably just being careful, what with so many people gathered in one place," I thought, shrugging my shoulders.

I finally remembered that Kelsey had asked me about the boy.

"I don't know, I've never seen him before," I answered her.

"Well, he's cute," Kelsey, said, much to my surprise.

I didn't really know whether I should snort, laugh or groan.

"You're seven. You shouldn't think anything but puppies and kittens are cute," Dad broke in, sounding amused though still tense.

I glanced at Kelsey, who was laughing, before tracing her gaze back to the rough-looking boy. As I looked at him, I suddenly I felt safe, like he would protect Kelsey and me.

"But why would he need to do that? It isn't his job, that's what Mom and Dad are for," I thought, thoroughly confused as to why I felt a connection with this mysterious boy.

The boy must have noticed I was staring at him, because he looked toward me. His glance settled on Kelsey for a second, making her giggle and blush, much to my amusement. Then he looked me straight in the eye.

For a long moment, we just stared at each other. I felt like we were talking, though I wasn't quite sure what we were saying. Then he nodded his head in greeting and went back to looking around, the bored expression reentering his eyes. I glanced down at Kelsey, who smiled at me.

"I think I'm going to go talk to him," she said. Kelsey had never really been a shy person.

"You'd better stay…" The rest of my sentence died in my throat as she took off in the boy's direction. I heard my parents chuckle and shot them a grin over my shoulder.

Curious, and feeling the need to keep Kelsey in my sight, I followed. When we reached the boy, he glanced at us and nodded again in greeting.

I felt pretty embarrassed, since I didn't even know the guy. But now that I was here, I couldn't find it in myself to leave, so I did the only thing I could do. I drew myself up to my full height and nodded back.

"You're cute!" Kelsey announced by way of greeting. My shoulders and jaw dropped in shock at her bluntness. I wasn't sure whether I should be embarrassed by her actions, or laugh my butt off.

Surprise flitted across the boy's face, but only for a moment. Kneeling in front of Kelsey, he gave a charming smile that made her blush.

"Is that so? Well, that's a pretty big compliment coming from someone as pretty as yourself." The boy's voice was soft, gentle, and filled with warm amusement. Kelsey giggled again, her face turning pink.

"And who is this? Your boyfriend?" The kid asked, switching his attention to me for a second before looking back at Kelsey. I knew the kid was joking, but still floundered for a second.

"He's my brother, duh," Kelsey said, giggling and reaching out to smack the boy's arm.

The boy chuckled and gave me a grin that said, "Your little sister is so cute". I grinned back and surprised myself by actually using my vocal cords for once.

"So, you got a name?" I asked.

The kid glanced at me again, and was about to answer before seeming to think better of it. He stared at the ground, biting his lip in concentration.

"What, did you forget your own name?" Kelsey teased.

The kid sent her a mock glare before finally deciding what to say.

"No I didn't, thank you very much." His voice and eyes were teasing as he sent a playful pout at Kelsey. "Call me J.T."

I nodded. It fit him fine, but I had a feeling that wasn't really his name.

"I'm Tom Leighton, and this is my little sister Kelsey," I said, before Kelsey got the chance. She glared at me, but I ignored it. For a moment, J.T. glanced between us.

"I can tell you're related," he finally said.

I raised an eyebrow at that. Most people had trouble believing Kelsey and were related; after all, we looked nothing like each other. I had my mom's brown hair and Dad's brown eyes, while Kelsey had Dad's shoe-polish-black hair and Mom's bright green eyes.

"Really?" Kelsey asked excitedly. For reasons I could never figure out, she was always disappointed when someone said we looked nothing alike. Mom had once told me it was because Kelsey looked up to me and she wanted everyone to know we were related.

"Yeah. I mean, none of your major characteristics are the same, but you have the same nose and smile exactly the same way," J.T. said with a laugh.

Kelsey's face lit up like Christmas had come early. I shot J.T. a thankful smile, which he returned.

"I think I could like this kid," I decided.

Suddenly, J.T.'s eyes flickered to the guards again. Now that I thought about, he'd been glancing at them throughout our conversation, with a guarded and wary expression entering his eyes.

As he glanced back towards us, his eyes took on yet another expression…protectiveness, I thought. Why would he feel protective of us? We had just met, and there was no danger. (Later, I would learn that J.T. was guarding and protective of all those that came into his care, and this was far from the last time I would see that look in his eye.)

Suddenly, J.T. glanced over my shoulder.

"Hey, are those your parents? I think they want you," J.T. said, standing up.

Turning to see for myself, I found my parents motioning for Kelsey and me to come back over. I was a little disappointed that I had to leave a new friend so soon.

"Yeah, that's them. Come on, Kelsey, I think the ceremony is going to start," I said, trying to ignore the sadness I felt. I had no idea why, but there was just something about this kid that said, "I'm your friend and you're safe with me."

"Awww, but I want to stay with J.T.," Kelsey whined.

I was about to protest when J.T. knelt back down.

"Hey now, we'll meet again. But for now, you should probably go back to your parents," he said. His voice was impossibly gentle, more like somebody talking to their child than to a girl they just met.

Despite his attempts, tears filled Kelsey's eyes.

"I don't want to leave," she sniffled.

I expected irritation or annoyance to cross J.T.'s face, but instead an amused smile pulled at his lips.

Suddenly he snapped his fingers, making both Kelsey and me jump.

"I got it!" J.T. said, standing up and digging around in his pocket for a  
>second.<p>

After a moment, he found what he was looking for and kneeled down again to meet Kelsey's eyes.

"I knew there was a reason I picked this on my way here," he said, opening his hand to reveal a flower.

It was one of the native flowers, which looked a lot like an Earth lily except for the coloring. It was a deep sapphire blue with hot pink stripes running horizontally along each of the petals, and the stem was a bright gold. Any other year, these would have been common flowers. Now, though, it was probably the last beautiful vegetation in all of Tarsus IV.

Oddly enough, it was also Kelsey's favorite flower.

I knew vegetation was scarce right now, and I should have been mad that J.T. had picked it, but as Kelsey's eyes lit up in wonder and happiness I couldn't find it in my heart to be mad at him.

With a laugh, J.T. tucked the flower behind Kelsey's ear and into her hair, sealing it there safely.

"Why don't you take this to remember me by," he said. "It's such a nice flower and it looks good in your dark hair. A pretty flower for an even prettier girl."

His wink made Kelsey turn bright red, and I couldn't help but chuckle. Kelsey shot me a glare, but J.T. just smiled at me.

"Now will you go back over to your parents?" J.T. asked. "I promise we'll meet again. You two are too much fun for me to stay away long."

Kelsey looked like she was about to protest, but to my surprise a stern fatherly look came into J.T.'s eyes and she relented.

J.T. gave her a kind smile and stood up. The second he was on his feet, Kelsey tackled him, hugging his waist tightly. Though surprised, he slowly put his arms around her to return the hug. After a second, though, he pulled back and smiled.

"Go on, you've kept your parents waiting long enough," J.T. said, his voice soft and parental.

Kelsey nodded, but before she turned to leave she motioned with her finger for him to bend down again. With surprising patience, he did.

The second he was back down to her level, Kelsey quickly kissed his cheek, then turned and ran off, blushing furiously, before J.T. and I had time to react.

J.T. stood up slowly and turned to me.

"She sure is a brave little one, isn't she?" J.T.'s voice rang with amusement.

"You have no idea," I laughed.

"Well you'd better get back over there, too." J.T. said, and for a second I thought I saw a flash of the sadness I felt flicker in his Earth-sky blue eyes.

"Yeah, I better," I said. I didn't leave: I was trying to figure out how to say good-bye, but the words and a simple wave didn't seem appropriate, and I certainly couldn't hug him or kiss his cheek!

So I settled for what I saw my dad do when he was greeting or saying good-bye to friends: I stuck my hand out. I saw amusement once again shining clear as day in J.T.'s blue eyes as he reached out and grasped my hand in a firm but friendly handshake.

I was about to let go and head back to my parents when suddenly the intercoms buzzed on.

"The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV."

J.T.'s hand froze in mine and I felt my mind go blank as suddenly the guards around us lifted their phaser rifles and fired.

Screams erupted from the crowd and suddenly people were stampeding around us. Phaser shots went flying past us and some people dropped, never to get back up again.

J.T. grabbed my wrist and started dragging me towards a nearby alley.

Suddenly the shock wore off and images of my parents and Kelsey flashed through my mind.

"Let me go! I have to find my family!" I shouted as I struggled against J.T. His grip was surprisingly strong for such a malnourished kid.

"I'll find them," J.T. shouted over the racket as he jerked me out of the way of a phaser blast and shoved me into the alley, "Run! I'll find them! GO!"

Fear gripped every part of me and I did the only thing I could: I followed orders and ran, trusting some guy I'd just met to keep me alive and bring my family back to me. I didn't glance back, because if I did I wouldn't be able to run away.

Then suddenly, over the noise of all the screaming and phaser shots, another scream rang out in terror. It made my blood run cold. I knew that scream.

For a second, I considered running and saving my own hide, but then Kelsey's sweet innocent face flashed in my mind and I didn't have a choice anymore. She was my sister and she needed my help.

I spun around and found myself running back towards the chaos, not even bothering to notice the few lucky people who were running past me, having found the one escape not guarded by Kodos's men.

I didn't expect to find Kelsey as easily as i did, but there she stood, at the edge of the crowd farthest away from me, with fear etched onto her face. I started running towards her, dodging people or knocking them down. My only thought was to get to Kelsey.

I was too late. A guard had spotted her before I had and had already taken aim. I screamed. What was I screaming? I don't know. I just felt it tear through my throat as I swam through the crowd, trying to get to my sister. I expected to see her drop at any second with a gaping hole in her chest.

For one second there was that danger. The next second there was J.T.

I still swear to this day the kid popped out thin air. He grabbed Kelsey up into his arms and ran, the phaser fire so close I saw a scorch mark appear on the back of J.T. Brown leather Jacket. J.T. didn't seem to notice just how close he came to be getting killed as he just continued to run, kelsey now in his arms her head tucked safely under his chin and her body covered almost completly by his.

I felt my legs go watery in relief. J.T. and Kelsey were heading towards the alley. They needed to hurry, though, cause the guards had noticed how people were getting out, and were now shooting their way towards the exit to block it.

I tried to follow, but almost immediately I was cut off by people running and shoving each other.

I saw one woman with a swollen belly showing she was pregnant, and with a start I recognized her as my science teacher, Mrs. Crawford. I saw her trip over one of the too many bodies.

Nobody stopped for her. I could hear the sounds of bones crunching and then a bloodcurdling scream cut through the air and then stony silence.

I never saw Mrs. Crawford get up.

But as sick as all that would make me feel later, for this one instant I was concerned only about getting myself out of there.

I glanced back up, just in time to see J.T. shove Kelsey into the alley. For whatever reason, J.T. turned to look back.

Even from across the courtyard, I could see his eyes shining bright with horror and fear, but also determination. He wasn't going to go down without a fight. He was about to turn and run, and for a cold second I realized that he thought I was up ahead. He would unintentionally leave me here to die.

"No!" I mentally screamed at him. "I'm not ahead! Please don't leave me!"

Before he had fully turned around to run for safety, I caught his eye. Exasperation and fear, which I later realized was directed towards me, shone in his impossibly blue eyes.

For one horrid second, I thought he might just turn and leave anyway. Heck, he had already tried to save my butt once, and like an idiot I had come back.

This was my first lesson never to doubt J.T.

The kid yelled over his shoulder, presumably at Kelsey, and then took off running in my direction. I felt relief once again crash over me as I fought through the rapidly thinning crowd towards the one person I hoped could save me.

20 feet from him. Come on, I had to make it.

15 feet and closing with surprising speed. Fear lent my jelly-like legs  
>strength.<p>

10 feet.

I saw the rifle rise in the corner of my left eye.

5 feet.

J.T. took a flying leap and tackled me.

He was only half quick enough. The phaser fired. J.T.'s body hit mine. My head snapped to the right, opening up the left side of my face.

Then searing, harsh pain wiped all thoughts from my mind. Dimly, I felt my back hit something soft but wet. The ground was covered in blood, I would later realize.

I heard a voice screaming, but I couldn't understand what it was saying. The only thing I understood was the searing, bursting pain coming from the left side of my face, mainly in my eye.

I felt like I was being raised and then moved very quickly.

"Yes," I thought as blackness began to come over my mind and the pain began to ebb, "Yes, angels, take me away from this planet to the pearly gates and make this pain go away."

My vision cleared slightly one more time before darkness came over me. I could see blurs of movement that I was sure was the sky the angels was carrying me towards.

The last conscious thought I had was, "My angels have pretty blue eyes."

Then the world went dark, and I knew no more.

end chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

A/N edited chapter 3! please enjoy and reviews make me happy!

Chapter 3

My name is Tom Leighton. I am ten years and I don't know how many months, weeks, or days old.

I groaned, or tried to. It came out as more of a dry gurgle. My senses were slowly coming back to me.

I felt something softly caressing my skin. A breeze? So I was outside, then. I could hear the faint crackling of a nearby fire, and feel the heat on my right side, i could also hear two voices quietly conversing. One was vaguely familiar and the other I thought I should definitely know, but I couldn't quite place it. The air was musty, as though some sort of moldy plant were nearby, but I could also make out the smell of canned tuna. How long had it been since I'd last eaten? My stomach was growling, so it must have been a while.

"Where am I? What's going on? Why am I so hungry? What am I doing out here; shouldn't I be at home and in bed? Where did my parents go?" I wondered. The last thing I could remember was an…angel? Yes, that's right. He had blue eyes. Was I dead? I needed answers.

Still confused, I let my eyes flutter open, or at least tried to. I couldn't feel anything at all on the left side of my face, and my vision was so blurry it was hard to tell if I was looking out of one eye or two. But I could see two figures standing above me. I couldn't make out their faces, but it was comforting just to know that they were there.

It took a couple of minutes for my vision to clear, but when I could finally see clearly I was looking into two pairs of concerned eyes.

I'd recognize one of those pairs anywhere. They were dark green, like the leaves of those Earth "strawberries" that Mom had brought us once.

"Kelsey," I rasped, the dryness of my voice surprising me. My younger sister whimpered slightly and grabbed my hand so hard I thought she'd break it. "I was worried about you," she sobbed.

Those eyes belonged to Kelsey Maria Leighton my 7-year-old sister. With that concluded I shifted my position a bit to get a better look at the other pair of eyes.

His eyes where impossibly blue. The same eyes in the dream I'd just awoken from. They were the eyes of the angel who was carrying me away earlier. The eyes of…. J.T.!

Suddenly it all came rushing back to me. Getting dressed…. the square…meeting J.T... A flower...Kelsey's kiss…the intercoms buzzing  
>on…the guards firing…people running for their lives…Kelsey in trouble…Mrs. Crawford…and then searing, agonizing pain.<p>

It came back in such clear detail that I felt the adrenaline, and fear wash back over me clenching my starved stomach so hard I felt sure a diamond would form in its place. In a flash I had shot to a sitting position and whipped my head around to look for Kelsey.

That was a huge mistake. Pain like nothing I had ever felt exploded on the left side of my face. An agonized scream tore through my throat as I fell back, my arms covering my face in a desperate attempt to relieve the pain. I thrashed about like a fish out of water, thinking only of how badly my face was hurting.

"TOM! TOM! YOU'VE GOT TO STOP! YOU'RE JUST GOING TO MAKE IT WORSE! YOU'VE GOTTO STOP BEFORE YOU RIP THE BANGAGES OFF," J.T.'s voice cut through my pain-induced haze. I vaguely felt two pairs of hands holding me still, and relaxed slightly at the contact.

It took a moment, a moment that felt like a lifetime to me, but finally the pain wound down to a dull ache. My breathing was shallow and quick, and I wasn't ready to go anywhere, but at least I could think again.

"Mom? Dad?" My voice was rough, and from the dry feeling in my throat I could tell I hadn't used it in a while.

I knew better than to try moving my head again, but I managed to turn my body so that I was looking at the fire. I had expected to see my parents to be there asleep, since they wern't by my side after i had woken up. But they wern't there...in fact i couldn't see them anywhere in the clearing that we laid in. I felt confusion begin to creep back in on me.

A sudden suddering breath had me turning carefully back around to face Kelsey and J.T.

The sight that greeted me was the last thing i had expected.

Kelsey had J.T.'s shirt balled up in her fist and was sobbing into his shoulder, her tiny frame shaking. J.T. had his arms around her in a comforting, almost fatherly hug.

I caught his eye and I saw him read the question in my eye.

J.T. slowly shook his head. I briefly wondered what he meant before the realization hit me like a starship to the head. The air seemed to turn icy cold as I struggled to keep myself steady.

"No…" I stammered, "No, it can't be true." It felt as though my heart were being torn from my chest. Only a few minutes ago, I had thought nothing could be worse than the pain I was in with my face. I was wrong.

It would have been so easy to lose myself in grief, but Kelsey's sobs were growing louder and louder, and I had to be strong for her. Now more than ever, she needed a big brother.

I tried to push my own grief to the back of my mind as I very slowly sat up.

"Kelsey," I called out. Was that really my voice? Kelsey turned to me, her tear-filled eyes hurting my heart in a way I never knew was possible. I spread my arms a bit in a welcoming gesture.

With a broken sob, Kelsey pushed away from J.T. and flung herself into my arms, her face digging into my chest as she gripped me tightly. The quick movement jostled my head quite a bit, but I barely noticed the pain. All that mattered now was that Kelsey was hurting and I needed to help her. I was about to bury my face in her tangled black hair, when out of the corner of my eye I saw J.T. walking away towards the trees.

Was he abandoning us? There was no way we would survive on our own.

As if sensing my thoughts, J.T. turned around. For a second we just stared at each other. Then I looked deep into J.T.'s eyes and thought I saw a promise—a promise to come back.

So, with a nod, I turned my attention back to my weeping sister, whispering what I hoped were comforting words. I heard J.T. leave, but it didn't matter. For the moment, only Kelsey was important.

As I rocked Kelsey back and forth, I suddenly realized why J.T. had left. He knew that Kelsey needed me…and I needed her. He was giving us time to grieve for our parents in private.

So I continued whispering into Kelsey's ear, never really knowing what I was saying, but trusting that whatever I said would console her. I don't know how long we sat there. It might have been minutes, hours, days, or even centuries. But Kelsey eventually quieted down, and from her slow breathing I knew she had fallen asleep.

I shifted slowly, trying not to jostle her or my aching head, until she was lying as comfortably as I could get her on this cold hard ground. There was a folded T-shirt on the ground, so I give it to her for a pillow. I guess my head must have been resting on it earlier.

Looking down, I spotted a familiar brown leather jacket J.T. must have been using to keep me warm. I spread it over Kelsey's sleeping form, trying to ignore how small and frail she looked. The jacket almost seemed to swallow her.

Even in sleep, Kelsey's face was sad and etched with worry. No seven-year-old (or ten-year-old, for that matter) should ever feel such pain. Trying to ignore my own anxiety, I tucked the jacket tightly around her, just the way Mom used to tuck us in at night.

"She's a good kid." J.T.'s voice stated from behind me. Maybe in the past I would have jumped in shock at the sudden sound. Now, I wasn't sure I'd be fazed if the planet split in half beneath my feet.

I turned and fixed my gaze on J.T., who was leaning against a dead tree. His expression was sympathetic, and I managed to give him a hollow smile in return.

"She's too good to be going through all this s***," I said, surprising myself. I never cursed. The one time I said a bad word in front of my parents, I was grounded for months. Effectivly teaching me that cursing was bad. But as bad as cursing might be, I couldn't bring myself to be ashamed of what I'd said.

"You really shouldn't say words like that. No kid your age should even know what that means," J.T. said, his voice hard. I was about to tell him to take a hike and let me say anything I darn well pleased, but then I looked into his eyes.

His disapproval was clear in his expression, but that wasn't what stopped me. It was the fatherly look in his eye. It should have made me mad—I mean, this kid was barely two years older than me, he wasn't my father, and he had no right to try and take Dad's place—but I felt as ashamed as if he had been an adult.

"You're right. I'm sorry," I whispered, bowing my head for a moment in apology. When I looked back at him, he was frowning slightly, his face contemplative.

"It's okay. I know you won't do it again. Can you stand or walk any?" He asked gently.

My immediate reaction was "No! Of course not!", but hearing him ask made me want to try it. Pushing myself slowly to my feet, I managed to bring myself upright and take one step before I pitched forward. My legs turned to jelly and my head spun at the sudden change of pressure. I expected to hit the ground, but before I had fallen even a foot, a pair of arms shot out and caught me.

Sadly, even my light weight was nearly too much J.T.'s own skinny body. For a second, we stumbled around and the injured side of my head smacked into his shoulder, causing pain to shoot through me again. I let out a pained yelp that seemed to lend J.T. strength. He regained his balance, and thereby mine as well.

"Crap, that was a bad idea," I heard J.T. mutter, but the pain was too much of a distraction for me to make sense of the words, let alone form a response. I felt myself being dragged a couple of steps, and then slowly lowered into a sitting position. As the pain once again left and my vision cleared, I noticed J.T. had set me on a log in front of the fire.

"You okay?" J.T. gasped, tired by our brief struggle. I nodded, and for awhile we sat in silence, both catching our breath.

"How long was I out?" I asked, glancing back over to where Kelsey slept.

"About a week," J.T. sighed.

A week. I couldn't believe it. My parents had been dead for a week and I hadn't even known.

"How did you know what to do?" I asked, trying to distract myself from the grief that was threatening to swallow me again. I reached up and touched the bandaged side of my head. "You probably saved my life."

At this, J.T.'s eyes became a stormy gray. "Let's just say that in my life before Tarsus IV I learned how to treat serious injuries. I got the medical supplies from someone's house before it was burned to the ground, the night of the…" his voice trailed off. I couldn't blame him. There really were no words to describe what we had seen.

"Before Tarsus IV?" I asked, then immediately flinched. This wasn't any of my business and I could tell I was treading on dangerous ground.

J.T. actually flinched too, but after a second he answered.

"I lived on Earth until about four months ago. Got sent here to stay with my aunt and uncle after I drove a 20th century car of a cliff and my stepdad decided I needed a little…. attitude adjustment," he replied bitterly. "Like he wasn't giving me enough of that at home without sending me to this horrible rock."

I stared at J.T., disturbed by what he was implying. "Well," I thought grimly, "I guess that explains why he's so much skinnier then even us. They probably starved him before the famine."

I searched for something to say, anything that would break the sudden awkwardness in the air. I wanted to tell him how amazed I was that he was such a kind, strong person even after going through so much pain. But the words refused to come, and I could tell J.T. was uncomfortable with the way I was just sitting there staring at him.

So I opened my mouth, hoping I wouldn't say the wrong thing, and….Grrrrroooowwwlll…. My stomach interrupted.

J.T. glanced at me and I felt blood rush into my hollow cheeks. For a second he was silent, but then he threw back his head and laughed, loud and long. Slowly, my blush began to disappear and my lips twitched into a smile. Soon I was chuckling along with him.

Never had laughing felt so good. There wasn't much to laugh at, when I stopped to think about it. My left eye would probably never work again, my parents were dead, my sister and I were starving, we had watched the brutal slaughter of half the people we knew, and the only person left who cared about Kelsey and me was this boy, barely older than I was, sitting beside me. And yet, that  
>one awkward moment broken by the growl of an empty stomach seemed like the funniest joke in the world. My dad once told me that sometimes people laugh to relieve stress and stop themselves from going crazy. So I suppose this was just J.T.'s and my attempt to stay sane in a world gone mad.<p>

We sobered up after a couple of minutes, remembering that Kelsey was sleeping just a few feet away.

"Here, eat this," J.T. said, picking up a half-filled can of tuna and handing it to me. There were a couple of native bugs crawling up the side of the can, and I'd never liked tuna much in the past, but my mouth watered at the thought of food. So, nodding quickly in thanks, I took the can and began shoveling the fish into my mouth. J.T. gave me a small smile and leaned back, waiting patiently for me to finish eating.

However, before I could wolf down the full contents of the can, another question occurred to me, one I had to know the answer to.

"J.T.?" I asked hesitantly.

He had been staring at the stars, but gave a small hum to let me know he was listening.

"Back in the square, when we first met…it seemed like you knew what was going to happen," I began, feeling cold dread build in my stomach.

"No, please God, no. Don't let my fears be true," I thought to myself, even as suspicion began to eat at my mind. "Please don't let J.T. be in on this."

J.T. turned towards me, his eyes showing pure confusion. I don't think I've ever seen a more expressive face on anyone.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"It's just that….when we were waiting.…" My voice kept breaking off and I felt shame at even bringing this up. "It seemed like you knew something was going to go wrong," I finally managed to blurt out.

I watched J.T.'s face closely. Confusion gave way to realization, then anger, which turned to hurt and then finally settled into quiet and gentle understanding.

"I understand what you're trying to say," J.T. replied softly. His tone made me feel even worse about accusing him. "However, if you're assuming I knew that Kodos was planning that….SLAUGHTER… you're wrong," he continued.

"But then how come you acted like you did?" I pressed. I felt terrible about the way I was treating him, but at the same time I needed to know the answer.

It was several minutes before J.T. gave a weary sigh and spoke.

"Finish eating and I'll explain to you why I had a gut feeling about what happened in the square," he sighed, his voice explaining to me in a way words couldn't just how tired he was.

Obediently, I scooped up another bite of tuna and shoved it in my mouth, barely taking time to chew before I swallowed. J.T. sent me a small, amused smile, but it quickly vanished as he began to speak.

"It kind of ties in with the aunt and uncle I was staying with," he explained, his voice turning spiteful at the mention of his family. "You see, my uncle was Kodos' main advisor, and definitely not a nice man. The only times I've ever seen him smile have been when he was beating the crap out of me. So, when he came home grinning like the madman he is, I knew something wasn't right. He told me I'd have to go to the square tomorrow. Said that Kodos had figured out a way to help with the famine, and I had to go and hear what he had to say and then bring the news back to my uncle and aunt. They promised me food. You know, since he was the governor's right-hand man, he got more food than the rest of the planet when the famine struck. I was so hungry I didn't even ask why he couldn't go himself."

"It wasn't until I got up in the morning and came downstairs to the stupid grin on his chubby face and the warm welcome at the breakfast table, that I became suspicious of why I was really being sent to the square. Being treated nicely by them was never, EVER a sign of something good. But, dang it all, I hadn't eaten in days. So, like a fool, I ignored my instincts and went anyway. When I got there and saw all the guards around, I got even more suspicious, but kept trying to convince myself everything would be okay." J.T. paused to take a deep breath, his eyes closed as if to shield himself against the harsh memories.

"Then I saw you and Kelsey, and I don't know why, but I felt incredibly protective of you guys. And then, well, like a fool I ignored my instincts again. If I had for even one second listened to my gut, I could have gotten you, Kelsey, your parents and all those innocent people out of there. I could have saved their lives, but like a coward I only looked out for myself. Hundreds of people died, just cause I cared more about the food that would be in my stomach that night. You and Kelsey would still have parents if it weren't for me. I'm sorry Tom, so, so, sorry," J.T. whimpered, looking up at me with tear-stained, pleading eyes-eyes begging me to forgive a sin he had  
>never committed.<p>

Overwhelming grief once again crashed over me, but this time I did nothing to stop it. Grief for my parents, for all the lives lost, for my lost eye, for all this boy beside me had suffered through, for all he was unjustly blaming himself for, burst through me in waves of tears. I felt my breath catch in my throat and a jagged sob tore its way up and out. I did the only thing I could think of at that moment.

I threw myself at J.T., never noticing the nearly empty can of tuna hit the ground, and hugged him tightly, burying the uninjured side of my face between his neck and shoulder as I sobbed. After a hesitant second, I felt J.T.'s arms wrap around me and his hands start to rub soothing circles on my back.

"I'm so sorry, Tom. So, so, sorry. If I could go back and fix my mistake, I would in a heartbeat. I would have gotten you guys out sooner, or taken the phaser fire aimed at your parents," J.T. whispered quietly.

I let out a disbelieving laugh that came out more like a jagged cough. This kid truly blamed himself for what had happened. He kept whispering "I'm sorry" into my hair.

If I wasn't in the middle of a breakdown and trapped in the worst situation a ten-year-old could find himself in, I would have smacked the kid upside the head. As it was, I just continued sobbing.

I don't know how long I stayed like that, held in the arms of the boy who had saved my sister's life as well as my own, sobbing uncontrollably. I only know that it was long enough for my tears to run out, my throat to become raw from the air roughly dragged through it, and J.T.'s voice to grow hoarse from whispering.

It wasn't till I finally pulled back that I felt the dampness on my own shoulder and realized that J.T. had been crying as well.

I looked into his blue eyes, into the face I had already begun to associate with comfort, safety, and…yes, family. But now, I saw no gentle expression, only pain, anger, regret, and self-hatred. It was a horrible look, one I never wanted to see on anyone's face again. Yet, strangely enough, it gave me hope.

You see, under all that horrible mess of self-blame I could see something…. strength was the best word for it. Because J.T.'s eyes showed that he wasn't going to give up until he was dead.

J.T. was a fighter.

"I'm sorry," he continued to repeat.

Still sniffling slightly, I brought my hand up and smacked him as hard as I could upside the head. I was starved and extremely tired, so his head barely moved, but it shut him up.

"I had that coming," J.T. said, looking down. Shame and hurt were still plain on his face

"You idiot, you saved my sister's life…you saved my life…you tried to save my parents at the risk of your own life. You came back for me after I stupidly turned around. You have NOTHING to be sorry about!" I would have been yelling if my voice hadn't cracked as soon as I began to talk.

J.T. bent down and retrieved a canteen of water, silently handing it to me.

"Here drink this" He said his voice tight with surpressed emotions.

With a frustrated groan, since I could still see the doubt and self-blame in his eyes, I pushed it away.

"Not until you promise me you won't blame yourself for things you could never have prevented no matter how hard you tried." By now my voice was little more than a whisper.

"Fine. I promise." J.T. said, shoving the canteen back towards me.

I could see in his eyes that he was lying, but I couldn't resist the water any longer. I opened the canteen almost desperately before gulping thirstily at it like a dying fish.

I was so delighted at the feel of the cool water on my sore throat that I never heard what J.T. whispered under his breath:

"I promise to never go against what my gut instinct tells me again."

But even the distraction the canteen provided could not prevent me from realizing that I would never be able to look out for J.T. the way he looked out for Kelsey and me.

And with that realization came my first bout of guilt that would haunt me in the years to come.

End chapter 3


	4. Chapter 4

A/N YAY! chapter four is up and edited! I hope posting all these chapters so quickly will make up for the long wait. Again another thanks to Captainquirk1701 and Rayrae118 for all their amazing help in editing this story! i couldn'thave gotten this done with out you! thanks so much!

on another note hope you enjoy and please always remember that Reviews are any authors life breath...and they make me write faster so if you really want to see more quickly then send in a review!

Chapter 4

My name is Tom Leighton, and according to J.T. I am 10 years, 9 months, and 3 days old.

If you thought that the worst of our troubles were over, you're dead wrong.

"Tommy, J.T. says you need to wake up now. We have to move!" Kelsey's voice exclaimed, cutting into my dreamless sleep. With a reluctant groan, I opened my good eye.

For a second, I was confused as to why there was purple sky over my head, but soon enough I remembered what had happened yesterday. The harsh reality of our situation felt like a smack in the face.

I considered the benefits of just closing my eyes and going back to sleep, if only to be as far from this cursed situation as possible. But as Kelsey leaned into my now-limited sight, I knew I couldn't do that. No matter how much I wanted to escape, I could never leave her alone.

So, I nodded at her and slowly sat up, my arms shaking under my weight. As soon as I was sitting comfortably, I found another can of tuna shoved under my nose.

"Eat up. You're going to need your strength," J.T. called out, with a surprisingly cheerful tone.

I glanced up at him and was met with a bright grin. Despite the trouble we were in, I couldn't help but return it. With a small nod of thanks to J.T., I took the can he offered and turned towards Kelsey.

"Are you all right, Kelly?" I asked. My voice was still raspy, but I tried to ignore it.

"I'm fine, Tommy," Kelsey whispered, with a small smile that didn't quite manage to reach her eyes.

"Are you sure? Do you need to eat?" I rasped. It still hurt to speak.

"No," Kelsey shook her head. "J.T.'s already stuffed me with two cans of tuna." Her nose wrinkled in distaste even as she sent J.T. an adoring gaze. He was packing a few cans of various nonperishable foods into a small backpack. At the sound of his name, he turned around and grinned widely.

"Of course, we've got to put a little meat on those bones so there's more of you for me to tickle," he replied pleasantly.

Kelsey yelped and started to scramble away just as J.T. lunged for her. I watched in surprise as he suddenly pulled Kelsey close with one arm, using the other to run his fingers quickly over her rib cage.

Kelsey let out a strange kind of strangled yelp and collapsed against the ground in a fit of laughter. The familiar sound soothed my fried nerves and relieved some of the seemingly endless pain that weighed on my heart. For a second, I even managed to forget the crisis we were going through. I could almost pretend I was just out camping with my sister and Dad, on one of the expeditions we used to take before the famine.

The key word there was almost. Back then it would have taken longer for Kelsey to start gasping for breath. It would have taken longer for her body to start shaking so much that it looked more painful than enjoyable. And, of course, Dad didn't have blinding blond hair and striking blue eyes.

But it was almost like it had been, and when J.T. finally pulled back I was able to see Kelsey's bright eyes sparkling in a way that I'd almost forgotten, and a million-watt smile on her face, I thought, "Maybe, for now, almost is OK with me."

That thought lasted for all of ten seconds. As J.T. bent down and planted a fatherly kiss on Kelsey's dirt-streaked forehead I was reminded again, in sharp detail, what was going on. Kelsey and J.T. were both covered in dirt and soot. Kelsey's long black hair was tangled in a wild mess, and her face and body were painfully thin. She was wearing the same baggy clothing she had been five days ago, only now her shoes and the bottom of her jeans were covered in blood. J.T wasn't in any better shape, and I knew if I had a mirror I would see that I looked just the same. With an aching pain in my chest, I turned away from where the two were still giggling.

"You alright, Tom?" J.T.'s laughter suddenly broke off and concern filled every note of his voice. I forced a small grin onto my face as I found two pairs of concerned eyes gazing at me.

"I'm fine," I reassured him. Kelsey seemed to accept this, and before long had decided to continue where J.T. had left off in packing food.

J.T., however, was not fooled.

"You want to tell me how you really are?" He growled, his tone leaving no room for arguments or lies.

I didn't answer him right away. I needed a little time to absorb our surroundings and everything that was going on.

We were sitting at the edge of what appeared to be one of the many now-dead cornfields. The back of our small camp pressed against the thick tree trunks that lead into a dead forest.

We were hidden well, even I knew that. But I still didn't like this area. Everything in it was dead—a constant remind of the hell going on around us. And to me, that seemed like a bad omen.

I thought about this for a while just to avoid J.T.'s question. Maybe if I didn't say anything he'd get frustrated and just walk off. But eventually it became apparent that that just wasn't going to happen.

So, sighing, I turned my thoughts away from my surroundings and all they represented to me, and answered J.T.'s question.

"How do you think I am?" I growled bitterly.

J.T. was silent a moment, then sighed.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, his voice breaking.

My thoughts flew back to last night, and I felt horribly guilty for taking my anger out on him. The kid already blamed himself for what had happened, and I wasn't helping. I felt like reminding him of his promise not to blame himself, but decided against it. Instead, I changed the subject.

"Why do we have to leave?" I asked, feeling more than a little relieved at the prospect.

"Remember how, last night, I left you and Kelsey alone for a while? I was doing a small patrol around the surrounding area of the clearing. I spotted smoke from a campfire a little ways away, in the direction of the city. It's a safe bet that it's Kodos's men, looking for people that escaped from the square. Probably trying to make sure no one contacts Starfleet and tells them  
>just what Kodos did." J.T. explained.<p>

I nodded, then pushed myself slowly to my feet. Surprised, J.T. scrambled to stand as well.

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, determined to help.

"Nothing," J.T. stated firmly, his eyes once again becoming fatherly. "Nothing but sit down and eat. I told you already, you're going to need your strength. The fever you got after you were shot was not a nice one, and it's left you weak. Regain some of your strength, and then we'll see what we have for you to do."

I was about to protest when I was struck by a wave of dizziness and nearly fell to the ground. I was barely able to see J.T. lunge forward, but his thin arms caught me mid fall. I thought for sure that we were going to have a repeat of last night, but, to my surprise, J.T. managed to keep his balance this time and lowered me back to the ground.

"Eat. It should help with the dizziness," he ordered as soon as I was feeling a little better.

With the evidence thrown in my face like that, I knew I had no choice but to obey. So I reached for the previously forgotten can of tuna, popped the tab, opened it, stuck the spoon in, dug out a nice-sized bite, and shoved it pointedly into my mouth to show J.T. he had won.

With a satisfied nod, he walked over towards Kelsey, who seemed to be taking inventory of how much food we had.

When I finally had finished eating and taken a sip or two out of the canteen someone had (probably purposely) left near me, I had to agree that I did feel stronger. Almost as if sensing my thoughts, J.T. turned around and gave me a grin.

When my eyes locked with his, I could see something there. Something that seemed like a…dare. He was daring me to do something, but I didn't know what.

A smirk split J.T.'s face.

"Hey, Tom, think you can come over here and give me a hand with something?" he called.

That's when it clicked.

He was daring me to walk.

With a smile and a prayer that I wasn't imagining my newfound strength, I rose ever so slowly to my feet. When I reached my full height, I waited for the minor dizziness to wear off. And then, I took a few experimental steps.

When I didn't fall, I felt a grin begin to tug at the corners of my mouth. I glanced up at J.T. to see him openly grinning, pride shining deep in his blue eyes.

Kelsey stood beside him, beaming as happily as if I had just handed her the moon. I felt my own grin grow, and I was about to walk closer when movement behind them caught my eye.

A shadow was moving slowly towards J.T. and Kelsey. Its shape and length told me that it was an adult, and it was approaching slowly, probably so they wouldn't hear anything. I could almost feel myself pale and I was sure my eyes were three times their normal size.

Fear gripped every part of my body. We hadn't moved camp fast enough…we had been found!

"J.T.! KELSEY! BEHIND YOU!" The words were out of my throat before my thoughts had even caught up to me.

J.T. flipped around to face the shadow-person, pushing Kelsey behind him. His stance was defensive, his chin raised and his fist held at his side, ready to swing should guards come towards us.

I tensed, ready to pull Kelsey out of the way should a fight break out, since J.T. looked bent on starting one. After a second, the figure appeared in full view.

Kelsey screamed, loud and piercing. If I hadn't been so shocked I probably would have done the same.

Out of the woods came a limping young woman at the most only 30 years old. Her long, reddish-brown hair was in a tangled mess, with leaves and twigs poking out. Her clothing was almost literally torn to shreds. Her dark brown eyes were wild and bloodshot, most likely from fever. In her arms was a small boy, probably no more than five years old.

But what had caused Kelsey to scream was the most horrifying of all. Half the lady's leg had been shot off! Muscle and tissue was hanging in shreds off of clearly visible bone. For a second, we just stared at each other. Then….

"Please, Please help," The woman gasped holding out the young boy, "Please help the others, please take him, please!"

J.T. moved closer and took hold of the boy, who immediately started crying and reaching out for his mother.

The young woman gave a small, sad smile before toppling over.

"TOM, KELSEY, HELP ME OUT HERE!" shouted J.T. as he shifted the kid quickly into my arms.

I watched, holding the screaming boy, as J.T. crouched down next to the woman and turned her over. Her eyes were still open, but they were glassy and seemed almost sightless.

"Kelsey, there's a stream just behind those trees over there. Get some water. Tom, start a fire. We need to heat the water if we plan on sanitizing the wound. Hand me that jacket, I've got to rip it up and start making bandages," J.T. ordered frantically.

To me, it seemed like a lost cause, but Kelsey was running to do as she was told, so I figured I ought to do the same. As I moved away, though, I was stopped by a voice.

"Don't bother," The woman lying on the ground whispered. "It's too late for me."

J.T.'s eyes were a stormy gray. Seeing as he hadn't ordered me to go finish my task, I figured he had concluded the same thing as the woman.

"You said something about helping the others?" J.T. whispered. "What did you mean? Are there other children? Other sick people?"

"Yes," the woman rasped. "Yes, others. They're locked in the courthouse. Over half the population of Tarsus is waiting to die in there. Men, Women, Children. They'll be killed, two hundred every day, until only the 'most valued citizens' are left. 4,000 people, brutally murdered. You must help them. Please. You must. Most of the children have been spared, to be used as guards I hear. To become murderers so that they can have the one thing everyone on this wretched planet wants: food! Kodos plans to hang food over their heads, and to get it they'll kill their own families. Please, you must save the children from that fate. Please!"

"We'll save them, ma'am, I promise. We'll save them," J.T. soothed.

"Thank you," the woman choked out.

It seemed like she was breathing a bit slower, and her eye lids were slowly dropping shut. That couldn't be a good thing.

"Mommy," the little boy whimpered.

The woman's eyes shot back open and she turned her head to look at her son. For a second I was sure her vision cleared of all glassiness and sickness. But the moment lasted only that long before her eyes clouded back over.

"Kevin, it's okay, honey. These nice people will take care of you now, sweetheart," she whispered. It seemed that was all she could manage.

Turning her eyes back to J.T. she murmured, "His name is Kevin Thomas Riley. He's five years old. Please take care of him. Even if you can't help the others, please, just take care of him."

For a long while a J.T. and the woman just stared at each other as if in silent communication, and then a look that I was becoming increasing familiar with entered J.T.'s eye.

The look of a promise.

The woman's lips twitched up in just the slightest hint of a smile, like she too understood the look in his eye, and then with one last glance at her son, she closed her eyes and exhaled the words "Thank you."

Her eyes never flickered open again. Her mouth never muttered another word. Just like that, she was dead.

I felt cold all over, and when the little boy struggled out of my arms I barely noticed. All I saw was the dead body of the young woman. She'd been talking, moving, alive just a minute ago. Like so many others, her life had been cut short. How many more times would this happen?

"MOMMY!" The shrill, horrified cry of the little boy cut my musings short. "Mommy, come on, you have to wake up, Mommy. Those mean boys are coming soon, we have to go, now is not the time for a nap," the kid whined, shaking his mother's shoulder in a desperate attempt to rouse her.

I felt my heart break for the poor kid. So young and innocent that 'dead' was a word that only applied to goldfish flushed down the toilet. He knew his mother wasn't just napping, you could see it in his face, but he didn't know what else to call it.

Sudden movement caught my eye and I had to tear my gaze from the heart-wrenching scene.

"Tom, go get Kelsey. Tell her not to worry about the water. Just get enough for the four of us to drink. If what Kevin says is true, then we need to go now." J.T. ordered. He was standing straight and firm. If his eyes weren't so expressive, one would think he wasn't affected at all by the happenings around him.

But J.T.'s eyes were almost as hard to look at as the rest of the scene. With a nod, relieved to get away from all this sadness, I hurried off in the direction I'd seen Kelsey take.

A few minutes later, when Kelsey and I returned with a canteen full of water, it looked almost as though we had never been there.

The fire pit had been scattered, the place where we had slept smoothed over to look like a pile of dead crops. The only thing indicating that anyone had been here at all was in the middle of the clearing, where J.T. and Kevin stood next  
>to a large mound of dead leaves, grass, rocks, and dirt.<p>

Kelsey sent me a questioning look, but I just shook my head and sat down. She continued to look confused until she finally seemed to notice that the woman wasn't around.

I could practically hear the realization hit her.

I saw a shiver crawl up her spine, and after a second she collapsed next to me, her eyes filling with tears. I wrapped my arms around her and turned her away from the hastily constructed grave. We sat there for what felt like forever, me just holding Kelsey as she cried silently over another death that none of us could fully understand.

Soon, though, we heard approaching footsteps. I turned around, making sure Kelsey couldn't see the grave.

J.T. was walking towards us Kevin in his arms his head buryed in J.T. neck and from the violent shaking of his shoulder crying. As they drew closer I could hear J.T. voice gently whispering to the young boy.

"We need to go now," J.T. urged as he drew up beside us, "From what Kev here told me his mother and he escaped from the courthouse early last night. The guards spotted them and his mother was shot while they where running away. Kevin said he heard one shout to follow them. She was injured so I doubt she was moving fast enough to put a great deal of length between them. My guess is they aren't to far from here."

I nodded, standing up and pulling Kelsey along with me.

"Where do we go?" I asked.

"I've been out here before, whenever I needed to get away from my aunt and uncle for a while. There's a secluded cavern not too far from here. It's big, but hard to find unless you're looking for it. I suggest we try there. It'll be big enough for us and whoever we rescue tonight," J.T. stated matter-of-factly.

"Sounds good…wait, what?" I replied. "J.T., what do you mean 'whoever we rescue tonight?'"

"I'm going to sneak into the courthouse and get as many people as I can out of there. I promised Kevin's mom I would, and I'm going to," was J.T.'s calm reply, his tone soft but leaving no room for argument.

"Okay, just ONE thing wrong with that…. ARE YOU FREAKING OUT OF YOUR MIND?" I shouted. An instant later, J.T.'s hand was covering my mouth.

"Quiet, they maybe close enough to hear you, and if they are you'll get us all caught," he hissed.

I stayed quiet so we could listen for footsteps. After a few minutes, when we had heard nothing, I ripped J.T.'s hand off my mouth.

"Oh I'm the one who's going get us all caught? Who's the psycho with a death wish who wants to break into a high-security building full of people just itching to kill us?" I hissed back, sarcasm dripping off of every word.

"Look, I made a promise to never again go against my gut instinct. And my instinct is telling me we have to go and rescue those people." J.T. said, seething.

"Is it your gut instinct telling you to do this, or some crazy belief that you're responsible for two hundred deaths and need to make it up by rescuing everyone else?" I fired back.

For a long time there was only silence: J.T. staring at me with wide eyes, Kelsey staring at both of us with even wider eyes and Kevin just staring emotionless at everything. Then J.T. let out a deep sigh.

"We need to move. We've wasted enough time."

I just nodded, too frustrated to do anything else, put my arm around Kelsey, and guided her along after J.T. It took us a little less than two hours to find the cave.

When we got there, J.T. laid the now-sleeping Kevin on the softest spot he could find and covered the boy with his jacket. Once that was done, he went to work on a fire, since it was getting dark and a chill was setting in. After a couple of seconds I moved to help him.

"Look," I whispered, trying not to speak loud enough to disturb the sleeping boy, "I'm sorry about earlier. It just that…well, one, I don't think Kelsey or I could survive without you. Two, even if we did rescue all those people we would just be prolonging their deaths. How would we be able to get food for so many without raising suspicion? Three, and most importantly…J.T., you're my  
>friend. I've already lost almost my whole family, part of my face, all my friends, and every last shred of my innocence. Don't you think that's enough, or do I have to risk losing you too?"<p>

J.T.'s hands, which had been working fiercely at rubbing two rocks together, slipped in surprise, creating a shower of sparks that luckily caught the dry branches piled in the fire pit. He pushed me back as a flame burst into life, just barely missing the tip of my nose. I landed on my butt a good three feet from where I had been crouching by the pit.

"You have indeed lost a lot in this short period of time," J.T. whispered back as I gave him a sheepish but grateful look for saving my hide. (Honestly, I should have remembered that those kinds of stones had a chemical in them that caused the flames they created to expand on contact with wood.)

"But you won't lose me that easily. And if you did, you would probably be safer. I'm bad luck." J.T. muttered the last part bitterly.

"You are not," I snorted.

"My mom goes into early labor just before the starship she's on is attacked. Seconds after I'm born my dad dies. The day I turn five my mom meets Mr. Stepdad. I come here, and two months later this happens. Trust me, I'm unlucky," J.T. insisted.

I sighed, but dropped the subject.

"I'm sorry we can't help those people," I whispered.

Beside me, J.T. stiffened.

"Who says we can't?" he grunted.

I looked at him, shocked. He continued before I could respond.

"You were wrong, it's not guilt driving me. It's my gut, and if you'll excuse me I have two promises to keep tonight," he said, climbing to his feet and walking towards the entrance of the cave. I watched him leave, scared to death of what was going to happen.

"J.T.," I called. He turned to look at me, his eyes telling me that it would be useless to try talking him out of it.

"Are you one hundred and ten percent sure this cave is safe?" I sighed. J.T. looked confused but nodded.

With another deep, tired sigh, I resigned myself to fate. I turned towards Kelsey, who was watching over the little sleeping boy like a hawk.

"Kelly," I whispered, "I need you to stay here with Kevin. J.T. and I should be back in a couple of hours. Under no circumstances are you to leave the cave, you got it?" At her nod of understanding, I walked over to where J.T. was standing, his mouth agape.

"J.T., so help me, we had better come back. If we don't, well, I hope I get the chance to punch you before we die," I growled as I walked by.

That seemed to snap him out of his trance. A bright grin spread across J.T.'s face.

"We will," he said, his grinning face practically glowing. "I feel it in my gut."

I rolled my eyes but allowed myself my own small grin. But as we stepped out into the cold darkness and headed towards the town I sent up a small silent prayer begging…

Well, that J.T.'s gut was brain-dead.

End chapter 4


	5. Chapter 5

A/N Well this is chapter 5...kind of short but i hope you enjoy it all the same :D...*YAWN* sorry guys but it's 2:57 a.m. where i live, so i'm going to hit the sack. i'll finish posting the rest of the chapters i owe you guys tomorrow! please till then read and REVIEW!

Edited chapter 5

My name is Tom Leighton. I'm 10 years, 9 months, and almost 4 days old.

If there is one thing Tarsus IV has in common with Earth it's the night sky. While during the day it's a bright purple, at night it's the same inky blackness broken by diamond lights. And, like Earth, Tarsus is one of the few planets that only has one moon.

That very moon was shining brightly tonight, and making it all the more difficult for J.T. and I to sneak back into the colony. What with my natural night blindness, useless eye, and clumsy feet, I often found myself stumbling into moonlight. It made me easier to spot, but at least I could see where I was going.

J.T., on the other hand, seemed relaxed yet perfectly alert. He slid into the shadows as easily as if he were one himself. If anyone could have seen him, they would have been able to tell he'd had a lot of practice sneaking around and staying out of sight.

He made me feel ashamed of my clumsiness, though he never said a word about it, just kept tugging me by the wrist and guiding me back into the shadows whenever I accidentally stumbled out. Several times I lost sight of him, panicked, and walked straight into a spotlight, but he was always there to catch me.

J.T. moved through the shadows as quickly and as soundlessly as the wind. When guards passed, they never even glanced around; unaware of our presence even though we were just a couple inches away.

It wasn't until we were looking at the front doors of the courthouse that we had any real close calls.

"Well, I guess we won't be going through the front doors," J.T. whispered, speaking for the first time since we left the cave.

I was behind him, and couldn't see what he was looking at, so I craned my neck to see over his shoulder.

That was a huge mistake. I was much shorter than him, and standing up on my tiptoes like that threw me off balance. I ended up stumbling into the moonlight.

J.T. didn't catch me in time to stop my leg and half my torso from being reveled to the ten-armed guards watching the courthouse. And of course ten guards meant 20 eyes staring in ten different directions, which meant….

"What was that?" exclaimed a particularly rough-looking guard, standing up so fast his chair slid with a bang into the dark wooden doors behind him. He cocked his phaser rifle and pointed it right where my torso had flickered in and out of sight.

J.T. moved so fast it was a literal blink and miss moment.

One moment I had been standing almost beside him, in plain sight. The next, I was pressed against the glass, chest to chest with him as he stood protectively in front of me. Breathing shallowly in my face, his sky blue eyes turned steely gray by the darkness, he stared straight at me.

"Keep your mouth shut and don't move, or you're going to get us killed," was his silent message.

I felt my own breath snag in my chest as I strained my ears to catch the noise coming from the guards.

"What was what?" Asked a bored male voice.

"I don't know what it was. It just looked like a disembodied leg and torso, over there by that old coot's bar," the man replied, his voice gruff. A second later I distinctly heard the sound of a phaser powering up.

"Seeing ghosts now, Miller?" came a sarcastic voice, this time female.

"Shut up, Franks!" Miller said, sounding irritated. "I know what I saw and it looked like someone was watching us."

"Well, if you're so sure, go over and check it out," grunted another one of the guards.

I felt J.T. tense in front of me. And I was pretty sure that if my own spine straightened out any further I was going to snap backwards.

"Stay here," J.T. whispered.

I felt fear choke me but I managed a short nod. And with that, the protective cover of J.T. slid away from me. That's when I really had to fight off the panic and the urge to follow him.

Now that I was able to see them, I tried to focus my attention on the guards instead of the fact that J.T. was nowhere in my limited sight.

"Fine, I will. But I'm taking Masters and Fields with me," grunted Miller, looking directly at the spot where I stood. His eyes squinted like he was trying to spot me again.

I felt my stiff spine turn to jelly. I knew he hadn't spotted me yet, but with 10 short strides down the courthouse stairs and across the deserted and blood covered road, the long-legged man and I would be nose to barrel.

As two other men, one with silver hair and clearly not a human and the other a black-haired, agile looking young man, stood up and turned on their own phasers, Miller started down the steps, the barrel of his rifle pointed straight at my belly.

Masters and Fields were quick to follow, pointing their own phasers in the same direction as Miller's.

I felt my knees begin to bang into each other, and I could no longer control my breath, which came out in short, panicked, gasps. My fingernails were digging into the bricks behind me. If I didn't have so many other things on my mind, it probably would have hurt.

I pressed myself as tightly against the wall as I could. My first instinct was to run, but common sense told me that if I moved they'd only see me sooner.

As they came closer another instinct came over me, one every child knows: The instinct to cry and scream for some authority figure to come and rescue you. Only my instinct was not to call for my mom or my dad or some police officer, like most kids. No, the first person that came to my mind to start screaming for was J.T. But where was he?

"He left you here to die, kid. Face it, he doesn't care about you. You were only a distraction in case he needed to save his own skin," an evil voice chuckled darkly inside my head.

The guards were now halfway across the street and closing in fast on the spot where I stood. They were so close I could see Miller's eyes widening slowly as he started to notice my skinny frame.

"No," another voice agued with the first, "Why would he go through all the trouble to save your butt last time if he was just going to throw you to the sharks the first chance he got? You'll see, he'll save you again."

The guards had reached the sidewalk, and I knew just one more step would bring me into plain view for them to use as a target. My already wild heartbeat kicked up another notch to the point that I was sure they could hear it.

"COME ON, J.T.!" the second voice shouted in my head as I saw the guard's foot head towards the ground for that final, fatal step.

CRASH…RRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNG!

Somewhere on the other side of the block, a store's alarm system went off as its window shattered. The guards in front of me froze mid-step, spun on their heels, and took off towards the blaring alarm, as did four of the other guards who had been stationed in front of the doors.

As the guards ran around the corner and out of sight, I felt my knees go watery with relief. I would have collapsed right there, sobbing with joy that I was still alive, if the shadows hadn't been so thin. Even so, I let tears of relief slide happily down my face as my both my body and mind slowly came back under control. I still hadn't fully relaxed when suddenly J.T. appeared right next to me. My already edgy mind went blank in fear, and I jumped and swung my fist forward in a last ditch effort to protect myself from harm.

J.T. managed to catch my fist before it slammed into his nose. "Tom, it's me!" he hissed before peering cautiously at the remaining three guards.

With another wave of relief crashing over me, I yanked my fist from J.T.'s hand and threw my thin arms around his scrawny neck in a bone-crushing hug.

"Please don't leave me alone again! Please," I begged, sobbing into his shoulder, "Please, J.T., everyone else has already left me. Please, not you. Please, I can't live on my own! Please, dad, please, I need someone to take care of me while I take care of Kelsey. Dad, I know I promised that I would be strong and take care of Kelsey, but I can't take care of her alone, not without someone taking care of me too. Please don't leave me again, please," I begged in a low sob, never catching my slip on what I had called J.T.

J.T., who for a second had just stood frozen in shock, slowly wrapped his arm around me and rubbed my back in a soothing effort to calm me down.

"Shhhh, now you're all right son. I promise I won't leave you again. I promise," J.T. whispered in my ear, neither one of us taking notice of the sentiment he had used.

The moment was broken by the quickly approaching steps of the returning guards. We were unkindly slammed back into reality, where we had a mission that the lives of thousands depended on. With a growl, J.T. pulled away. "It's not safe," he whispered, and dragged me forward by my sleeve, sticking closer to the wall then he had earlier.

I nodded and wiped my eyes with my free sleeve, unable to feel ashamed of my breakdown.

"There has to be a back door," J.T. hissed, pressing us close to the wall again as the guards passed us.

It took us a few minutes to skirt around the block and to the back of the courthouse, but luckily we didn't encounter any more guards.

However, when we did reach the back we found that there was no back door. But there was one of those thin rectangular basement windows that seemed a bit longer than average.

Just long enough to fit a tall 12-year-old.

And the best part… it was open.

Through it, though, we could hear things that made our hearts clench and smell things that made our empty stomachs roll. The sound of sick coughing and young kids crying was drifting out to us, accompanied by the stench of pee and something much worse.

This was the first time and last time I think I had ever seen J.T. look so physically distraught over something. Not just his eyes, his entire face showed the sadness he felt for the way these people were being treated.

"Kodos, you sick S.O.B., you had better hope you never come face to face with me," J.T. growled, his blue eyes harsh. I was sure his expression would scare the socks off even Kodos.

"Come on, Tom," J.T. whispered, peering around in the room. "There are no guards in there. You slide in first, that way if any guards come patrolling around here you'll be out of the way of the shots."

I nodded and lay down on my stomach, feet facing the window, then slowly shimmied my way through it, sucking in on instinct before realizing there was really no need to.

My feet hit the floor before my head was even pulled all the way through. I turned my head and pulled it through, but my ears got stuck. I let out quite a yelp; scared I would be stuck like this for a long time, when I head a small snicker. Unable to turn my head i settled for glaring at the window frame instead of J.T.

I felt rather than saw J.T. bend down.

The next second, bony fingers pushed my ears flat against my skull and pushed. My head popped out of the window so quickly I didn't have time to catch my balance, and I stumbled in tripping over something and landed flat on my backside.

"Tom, you okay?" J.T.'s concerned voice floated to me as I stood up, rubbing my sore bottom.

"Yeah, I'm fine..." My sentence trailed away as I caught sight of what I had tripped over.

In front of me, staring at the wall, curled up in a fetal position, was an old woman with wiry gray hair that looked as though it had been pulled from its roots. Tear tracks led from her once beautiful hazel eyes to the point of her chin to form a puddle on the floor.

My breath snagged in shock.

"Miss Norwick?" I asked, my voice quivering.

No, it couldn't be… but if her grandmother was here, that meant they must have…. Her.

"Miss Norwick? Miss Norwick is…. Is Martha here? Miss Norwick, is your granddaughter here?" I asked desperately, shaking her shoulder.

As though waking slowly from a trance, Miss Norwick finally pulled her gaze from the wall and turned it on me. Her eyes didn't light up with recognition as I had hoped.

"Who… who are you?" Miss Norwick asked, her voice slow and crackly…defeated. So very unlike her usual feisty tone.

"It's me, Tom Leighton, Miss Norwick. Where's Martha, is she here?" I asked, my voice shaking in desperate hope that she would say no.

"Martha…Martha who?" asked Miss Norwick, her voice clueless and hazy.

In a fit of pent up frustration, fear, and grief, I grabbed the old woman by the shoulder and shook her as hard as I possibly could.

"MARTHA! MARTHA NORWICK! YOUR GRANDAUGHTER, MISS NORWICK, IS SHE HERE? IS MARTHA HERE?" I screamed before remembering that there where guards everywhere.

The older women flinched and scurried backwards, but for the first time since I had set eyes on her tonight something ignited behind that gaze.

"Martha," Miss Norwick whispered slowly.

"Yes, Martha….Yes, is she here?" I whispered back, fear constricting my throat.

"Martha, oh my poor dear, I'm sorry, I'm so so sorry, I should have done more to stop them from taking you…. Oh I'm so sorry, my poor baby girl, my poor granddaughter, what horrors you must be going through," Miss Norwick sobbed, putting her head in between her knees and yanking on her hair till it came out in fistfuls.

"MARTHA! MARTHA! OH MY POOR SWEET MARTHA! FILTHY ANIMALS, TAKING MY POOR POOR MARTHA! MARTHA! MARTHA! MARTHA!," She wailed, shooting around to claw at the wall like a dog trying to dig under a fence.

I did nothing to stop her. My insides had turned to ice and everything around me disappeared.

"Oh good Lord please no. Please good Lord, don't let it be true. Please don't let her be here, please don't let her be…." I prayed, feeling like curling up into a fetal position on the urine-covered floor myself.

However, the sound of J.T. stumbling in from the window brought me back to Tarsus IV, something I was really beginning to hate.

"Tom, what happened? Are you okay?" J.T. asked, concern coloring his voice and reminding me of the reason we were here in the first place. Steeling myself against the pain for now, I stood.

"No," I answered honestly.

It was scary to hear how hollow and dead my voice was getting.

J.T. took a step back, apparently surprised at my tone.

"Let's get everyone out of here." I growled.

J.T. just nodded and turned around to face the giant room filled with close to 4,000 people. No one had even glanced over to see why two boys had climbed through the window into this hell hole.

"Excuse me everyone, we're here to help. We're going to break you out of here," J.T. called.

Some people glanced up in interest, others just snorted and curled further into themselves, and still others didn't even respond.

"Alright, so does anyone know if there's someone watching the door, or when the guard switch is?" J.T. asked.

For a moment it looked as if no one would answer. Then, slowly, someone pushed himself to his feet. He was a tall dark skinned man, with graying black hair and fatherly brown eyes.

"My name's Chris Baker, and to answer your questions: Yes, there's a guard on the door leading out of here, and they don't leave until another guard has fully taken over the shift. There's never a moment to escape and I think you're nuts for trying. I suggest climbing out the window you climbed in through and saving your own hides while you still can." The man's stern voice left no room for disagreement, and yet J.T. ignored it.

"With all due respect Mr. Baker, we came here to rescue you, and I'll be damned if I let Tom come here risking his neck for no reason at all." J.T.'s stern tone matched Mr. Baker's step for step. For a while the two of them just stood there staring at each other, in the silent communication only J.T. was able to create.

Then finally, after an eternity of nothing but the frantic muttering of Miss Norwick, Mr. Baker stepped back, almost hidden behind the shadows of the wide rectangular room.

"You got guts, kid," Mr. Baker said, a grudging respect echoing in his voice."What the hey. I'm good for anything that gets us the heck out of here."

J.T. smiled and gave a polite nod.

"Good choice," J.T. whispered, his own voice respectful.

"All right everyone; these two boys are here to rescue us. I want everyone, women and children first, to line up at the window," Mr. Baker addressed the now slowly gathering crowd.

There was some excited muttering, but most people just stared silently at us, their ears not daring to believe what they had just heard. Then, slowly, a little child, at the most only 8 years old, walked over and tried to pull himself through the low window.

That seemed to break the spell, as a couple of men rushed forward to start helping the shorter kids through the window. The rest of the people gathered in a long line that must have wrapped around the room three times. Children were only a small percentage of the people in the room; there might have been about 90 or so. The women were next, and then the men. I felt my breath catch.

"J.T., there's so many of them. How are we going to sneak away from here with so many people following us?" I breathed, feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of our mission.

I never got a reply. I turned around just in time to see J.T. squeeze through the window and turn around to pull little ones up. I let out a sigh and moved to help push the kids through.

It took at least 30 minutes before we had even managed to get down to the last five kids, and by now panic was swimming at the corner of my brain. We had been here way too long and guards were sure to come by soon. There was just no way we could stay here and save everyone without the risk of being found.

And I was right.

No sooner had I pushed the last kid out to J.T. then there was a loud bang and yell.

"WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE?" yelled a voice I recognized as Miller's.

In slow motion, I turned to see the guards standing with phasers pointed at random people in the crowd. I heard them fire, the sound like a cannon blast in the dead silent room.

And then it was like stepping through cool water back into the square. People were running. Some moved foolishly towards the guards in a desperate attempt to overwhelm them. People were screaming and dying. It was a horror nobody deserved to see once in their life, let alone twice.

I barely felt Mr. Baker grab me and shove me through the window, or J.T. grabbing desperately at the collar of my shirt trying to yank me through.

"Come on, Tom, move!" J.T.'s yell snapped me out of my daze just as my feet popped out of the hole and I was once again in the midnight blackness.

"RUN, EVERYBODY! FOLLOW ME!" J.T. yelled over the screams from the basement.

In a blind panic everyone, myself included, stampeded after J.T. to a part of the town that soon disappeared into forest. But with so many panicked screaming and crying kids only following the person next to them it was by no means an easy escape.

As I heard the guards running and yelling after us, as well as the distinct sound of phasers charging I just knew….This was the end. J.T. had been wrong. This had been a huge mistake that was about to cause over 80 deaths, mine included.

….So why was I still following him towards the forest instead of dodging into some random building where I had a better chance of surviving? As we hit the tree lining and the first blast fired, I got my answer….

End chapter 5


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Well heres edited chapter 6! which i think is actually a new chapter for all of you, that have read me unedited verson! I'm not quite sure how i feel about this chapter personally it doesn't seem to flow as easily as the others do and strikes as a bit stiff or even a little jumpy.

Please let me know what your thoughts on this chapter are, and let me know if my fears are correct. In other words **R&R!**

Chapter 6

My name is Tom Leighton and by now I am definitely 10 years 9 months and 4 days old.

JT was perhaps the most stupid and brave person I had ever met. A man already at the age of twelve. Willing to take a phaser shot for the children under his protection. And he almost did take the shot. It happened so fast.

We where fleeing for our lives. I had just reached the trees when suddenly JT bolted past me heading back towards the following guards. I didn't think, I just turned around to follow him but stopped in my tracks; without their guide, the other children also froze and looked around, staring at the approaching guards in the utmost terror.

The guards pointed their phasers at JT, but they never got the chance to fire. With a flying leap J.T. tackled the silvery haired man from earlier to the ground. After that it was a blur. J.T. some how managed to get the phaser from the man and fired at the surrounding guards who were so distracted at trying to get a clear shot of J.T. that they seemed to have forgotten the near  
>eighty kids standing between the trees. Four out of the ten guards dropped like flies, including the silvery haired man J.T. had been wrestling with.<p>

"Don't move!" J.T. screamed, pointing the stolen phaser at the rest of the guards, with the promised threat of destruction if anyone disobeyed ringing so clear I was sure even the youngest amongst us understood and froze even though I felt sure J.T.'s threat hadn't applied to us. The guards did as told and held perfectly still despite the fact that their six phasers to J.T.'s one was  
>no competition. They knew by the blaze in J.T.'s eyes and the twitchy trigger finger that at least one more guard would be killed before they could shoot J.T. and none of them seemed willing to be that one.<p>

Slowly J.T. began to back up towards us, his eyes flickering between the guards searching for just that one betraying move that would seal the deal on one of their lives.

"Tom," J.T. said as he drew up beside me, "Take the kids home. Wide loop around the city; I'll be at back for a bit."

His eyes never flickered in my direction as he gave me his orders and he held the phaser as if he'd been born with it in his hands. With blue eyes blazing silver in the midnight light J.T. didn't look like a twelve-year-old boy right then…. oh no he looked exactly how I used to picture a Starfleet captain before all this mess. His chin rose to meet the adults' eyes head on with defiance shimmering in his normally calm eyes like the surface of a puddle disturbed by a falling leaf. His stance was proud and protective as he stood in front of those whom he'd never met, ready to take on the world to get them out of there.

For a second I could do nothing but stare at the boy next to me, feeling admiration bubble in my stomach. This was exactly the kind of person I wanted to be when I grew up. Proud, and strong just like J.T.

That second was broken by J.T. growling my name.

"Tom dang it get to the front of the group and move!" He ordered. And then in lower voice he whispered, "Take them straightforward I'll be around in a bit to change the direction."

With a nod I turned around and quickly pushed my way forward until I was in front of the group whispering now and then to follow me.

Relieved that someone was guiding them again, the kids fell in to step behind me as I moved quickly keeping my eye open for danger.

And that's when I heard it. Two shot so close together that they almost overlapped.

My heart skipped a beat and visions of J.T.'s body laying on the ground flashed through my mind as the kids surged forward in a panic. And then the loud crash of two trees falling. I couldn't help myself; as the kids pushed past me I turned around to see what was going on. J.T. was tearing towards us, phaser still in hand. The two fallen trees behind him blocked the most direct path between us and the guards.

"Everybody follow me!" J.T. shouted over the ruckus of kids screaming and guards cursing. Reaching down, J.T. scooped up the nearest kid next to him and made a fast turn towards me.

His fingers clasped my arm and were dragging me forward before all the movement had even registered in my brain. The other kids, in a blind panic, did the only thing they could: they listened to orders. Following J.T. as he made sharp turns left and right, I could here the guards crashing around behind us.

This is impossible, I thought. We're too big of a group to lose them.

J.T. apparently had the same idea and as a small grimace crossed his face, the ever-growing fear in my stomach turned chilly as cold dread seeped into my bones.

That's it we're dead, I thought wondering to myself what Kelsey would do without me.

Almost as if sensing my thoughts, J.T. eyes flickered to mine. The eye contact only lasted a millisecond, but that was all I need to see the raw determination in J.T.'s eyes. And suddenly, despite the chaos around me, despite the guards behind us, I found myself reassured.

J.T. was going to get us out of this or he was going to die trying; but no matter what, he would probably take down the rest of the guards too.

After that I didn't have time to think as I was jerked sharply to the right and suddenly found myself thrown into wide ditch.

"Stay silent," I heard J.T. hiss and then suddenly found my arms full of the little boy that J.T. had been carrying. J.T. quickly herded the rest of the children down after me.

I knew there wasn't enough time to get everyone down here though and I was right.

We barely had ten kids in the ditch before the guards broke through the trees, their phasers charged and ready to fire.

I closed my eyes not wanting to see another massacre and felt the kids that J.T. had been able to get out of sight tremble and press into me seeking comfort I wasn't able to give. Terror cut through me and I tremble myself as images of the square and basement flashed through my mind.

All the blood and bodies, the screams of the unjustly condemned rang in my ears as I waited, not even sure where the memories ended and reality began. Seven rapid-fire shots rang out and I felt little hands clench at my shirt.

Then it was quiet.

I waited for what seemed like forever, but with the blood pounding in my ears and the memories circling in my head, I never realized that no more then seven shots had been fired. Until I felt a gentle hand shaking my shoulder.

"Tom," J.T. whispered beside me, "open you eyes Tom. It's over. The guards are gone."

Slowly I opened my eye and shakily glanced over at J.T. His eyes met mine in a calm reassurance.

For the second time that night a choked sob forced its way out of my throat as I flung my arms around J.T.'s neck and collapsed against him, crying.

For a bit I wasn't sure if any of this was real. I didn't know if the comforting shushes and lyrics of some song I'd never heard before being whispered into my ears were real. I didn't know if the gentle arms rocking me back and forth like mom use to do after a nightmare were real. I didn't know if any of this was real anymore. Things had happened too quick and I was left with the dizzying remains of my once happy life and wondering if I would even make it through tonight alive.

Eventually though, reality sunk in.

I was still alive…. J.T. was still alive, and my left hand resting on J.T.'s shoulder was wet and sticky.

Without thinking I pulled back from J.T. with a sniffle and glanced at my hand. Even in the silver light given off from the nearly full moon, there was no mistaken the dark liquid that covered my hand. For a second all I could do was gape, before my gaze instinctively fell on J.T.'s shoulder.

"You're hurt," I somehow managed to choke out as fear once again roared its ugly head and thoughts of J.T. dying pushed out all other thoughts.

J.T.'s eyes shifted and looked over at his shoulder with a grimace.

"Jerk got in a lucky hit. Don't worry though it's not deep and I've had worse." J.T. reassured.

And for a second all I could do was stare at J.T. like he was crazy. The guy had been shot and he was saying he'd had worse. I opened my mouth to protest but when I caught J.T.'s eyes, I stopped.

There were shadows flickering through his deep blue gaze shadows that warned me now was not the time to ask how J.T. could have possibly had worse injuries. All at once I remembered the little bit of J.T.'s past he had told me.

Had that really only been last night?

Either way I doubted J.T. really wanted to talk about that right now, so instead I turned my attention away from his bloody shoulder and shadowed eyes.

It was at that moment that I realized all the other kids had also made their way down into the ditch where J.T. had hidden as many of us as he could before the guards had shown up.

No one but J.T. looked harmed.

"How is everyone alive," I whispered my emotion wavering between disbelief and giddy relief.

A pained and dark look crossed J.T.'s face.

"I shot the guards before they could shoot us," J.T. whispered, his voice monotonous, and his face going blank, everything but his eyes utterly emotionless. His eye's whispered his regret of the necessity of people having to die and the anguish of having to be the one to pull the trigger. It was clear J.T. didn't like killing but it was also clear that if put into a similar situation he would not have done it any differently.

I nodded to show I understood and glanced around at all the people we had managed to get out. A few of them I actually recognized; there were kids my age and some so much younger. They all sat in the ditch huddle together various looks of terror, shock, and grief on each of their faces.

Nobody seemed older then J.T. but maybe that was because at that moment they all looked so young and scared while J.T. moved like a parent away from me to go and comfort the youngest of children. I watched as he went to each of the rescued children one by one and slowly got them relax.

It was nearly dawn when J.T. stopped making rounds and told me we need to get back to the cave and that there was probably already more guards looking for those that escaped. I nodded and stood up. After a couple moments of dizziness I managed to gain at least enough strength to put one foot in front of the other as J.T. led us through the ditch saying it connected to an area not far  
>from where the cave was.<p>

It was still hours though before we managed to find our way back and by that time J.T. was once again holding the same little boy that he'd picked up when we where running.

The kid seemed to be the youngest out of this group, only four, and it was apparent that the sickly looking kid just didn't have the strength to make it back on his own.

It was a relief to all of us when J.T. finally stopped and handed me the little guy so he could climb out of the ditch and then reached down to start pulling us out. After we were all out of the ditch, it was just another turn around the thick group of trees to see the mouth of the cave.

The second my eye caught sight of it I ran… my only thought now was making sure my sister was still safely inside. When I got in there I was relieved to see her curled up near Kevin, asleep. She didn't wake until J.T. and the others started walking in behind me. I watched her sit up and rub the sleep out of her eyes and then watched as said eyes widened when she saw how many people we were coming in with. I laughed in relief as I ran to her and dropped to my knees to hug her.

"Oh Kelsey you have no idea how glad I am to see you," I heard myself whisper in a slightly hysterical laugh. At this she turned a curious gaze on me instead of the kids.

"Tommy who are all these people?" she asked looking slightly frightened.

"Just kids that need a place to stay, Kelly," J.T. answered before I could, as he sat the boy he'd been carrying almost the entire way on the ground next to Kevin. The kid was out cold.

And honestly it looked like the others weren't far behind him as each of them found the most comfortable piece of ground they could, as far away from the cave entrance as possible and seemed to just curl into themselves and pass out one by one from pure exhaustion.

I could sympathize with that. I felt tired enough to just sleep for the next decade, but J.T. was still bleeding. His shoulder injury had to have been aggravated when he had pulled all the kids out of the ditch. And he probably needed some help fixing that up.

And almost as if my thoughts had drawn her attention to it, Kelsey suddenly exclaimed, "J.T. your hurt!" before bouncing out of my arms to grab J.T.'s shoulder and examine it closer. Her sudden exclamation had caused several kids nearby to sit up in startled alarm, clearly still a little nervous from the event of the previous night.

"It's okay guys," J.T. whispered gently, "you're safe here; go back to sleep."

They gave him doubtful looks, but slowly laid back down to go back to sleep.

"Kelsey, I'm fine, it's just a scratch," J.T. gave her a reassuring grin before patting her head. She didn't look convinced and leaned over and gently pressed her lips to tattered remains of the shoulder of J.T.'s black t-shirt.

"There," Kelsey grinned looking satisfied with herself, "A kiss to make it feel better!"

I raised an eyebrow at her before turning to look at J.T. just in time to catch the choked up, touched, and incredibly surprised look that flashed quickly across his face.

"Thank you Kelsey," J.T. rasped, voice husky and sort of strangled. "It does feel better now."

Kelsey beamed at him as if he'd just given her the greatest of gifts by saying that.

J.T. returned the grin. "You know I've never had someone kiss my booboo before. I've thought people were crazy when they said that they healed all wounds. Thanks for proving me wrong," J.T. said, tweaking Kelsey's nose.

At that however Kelsey frowned. "You've never had someone kiss your booboos before? But what about your mommy? Didn't she pick you up and kiss your scraped knee or scratched hand?" she asked puzzled.

J.T. froze, what he had inadvertently revealed just now registering.

Clearing his throat, J.T. just plastered a grin onto his face. "My mommy was a little bit different then yours Kelly."

Kelsey didn't seem satisfied though and crossed her arms determinedly over her tiny chest.

"Well that is just wrong of her but don't worry J.T., when you get a booboo I'll kiss it to make it feel better!" Kelsey stated matter-of-factly.

J.T. chuckled and reached over to smooth her hair down. "Thanks Kelly, that's very nice of you."

"Tom," He said suddenly turning his attention to me from where I'd been watching, "get some sleep; God knows you're still recovering. Sleep and a decent meal will be able to help with that, and seeing as it looks like a meal might be unlikely for the next few hours, it's a good idea for us to do what we still can."

I cleared my throat, "Uh, J.T. aren't you going to need some help with your shoulder?" I whispered, half because it probably wouldn't do Kelsey any good to know her magic kiss probably hadn't helped at all, and half because my voice didn't seem capable of producing anything louder than a whisper right now.

"No, like I said Tom, I've had worse and have treated worse; this won't be a big deal, I'll just boil some water, clean the cut, and use the ripped pieces of my shirt to bandage it until I can get my hands on some gauze or better yet a dermal regenerator." J.T. whispered back, his eyes tracking Kelsey's movements so she wouldn't accidentally overhear us.

"Are you sure I can't help? It probably isn't a good to be moving your shoulder too much." I protested, even as I found myself already lying down and my eyes dropping closed from the weight of exhaustion.

I barely heard J.T. snort off his sarcastic comment that he couldn't be moving it anymore boiling water then when he was pulling everyone out of the ditch. If I hadn't fallen asleep at that moment, I might have reminded him he had restarted the bleeding by pulling everyone out of said ditch.

As it was though I simply passed out. It was only a couple minutes later when I found myself being dragged back to consciousness. There was a sticky feeling through the cave and it was silent enough that I could hear the crackle of a fire and the bubbling of water. I turned my head towards the sound and with some effort opened my eye to see who had started a fire when it was midday in the middle of summer. When I saw J.T. crouching next to the beat up old pot, which J.T. had told me he'd stolen along with the medical supplies needed to fix my face, I was reminded of what had happened last night.

The pot sat balanced precariously on a couple of rocks that J.T. had set in the middle of the fire pit a small bit of space between each rock that aloud the fire to creep its way in between the cracks to warm the pot.

I watched him add a little bit of Tarsus natural salt to the pot and stirred it with the bent fork we had been using the day before to eat tuna with; by this time I was starting to feel a little confused. Was he cooking? While else would he need salt? Then J.T. let out a long-suffering sigh, which caused shivers to crawl down my spine. That was the sigh of someone who was about to do something they really didn't enjoy.

J.T. glanced around as if to make sure no one was watching him and I felt a little guilty when he didn't notice me. I also briefly wondered where Kelsey was but guessed that J.T. probably knew, and that he wouldn't just be sitting there if she were in danger.

Then to my surprise J.T. pulled of his shirt. What I saw almost made me gasp, which would have given me away, since it was silent enough that even a the quietest sound would carry.

Along with the dried blood that had been running down both sides of J.T.'s body from his injury, there was also a littering of scars that stood out in sharp contrast with the rest of the his pale skin, and dang I knew J.T. was skinny, but even I still had enough meat on my bones that not _all_ of my ribs where jutting out. Each of J.T.'s were clearly visible. What had this kid been through? With dermal regenerators, scars where rare enough that it took a very serious accident to leave even a faint trace, so the only way to have that many scars and still be alive… either the incidents had been so severe that, even with modern medicine, it had still left a trace, or he had never had the injuries treated.

That, along with his overly thin body was yet another sign that this kid had not had the loving family Kelsey and I did.

I watched in silent horror as J.T. picked up a weird shaped rock that had an almost bowl like quality to it and put it to the boiling hot salt mixture he had just made. I couldn't believe my eye when J.T. brought the bowl-rock up with one hand and with barely a sign of hesitation dumped it right onto to the still slightly bleeding wound. I nearly yelled out in horror for him to stop, especially when I saw his facial expression twist itself into to a look of silent agony, and heard the small gasp of pain. But I found I couldn't get my throat to make any sound at all.

I watched as J.T. dumped the hot water over his skin again and again. It seemed like an eternity before J.T. finally stopped torturing himself, and when that was finished he reached for his shirt and ripped both sleeves off. He then proceeded to rip both down one seam, and tied them together. Then, with an awkward movement, he tried to tie the ripped pieces around his shoulder. I watched him try and fail a few times before I couldn't take it anymore and stood up. J.T. didn't even jump at my sudden movement and it made me question if he'd known I'd been watching the entire time.

I waited a moment for a slight dizzy spell to pass, before making my way over to where J.T. had frozen in his attempt to tie together his homemade bandage. Without saying a word I knelt down beside him reached for the two ends of tattered shirt; in a couple of seconds I had tied it as tight as possible against J.T. shoulder. I sat back on my heels and watched J.T. just sitting there staring determinedly at the ground. He hadn't spoken a word while I was tying his bandages, hadn't even glanced once at me. A heavy sigh escaped my lips.

"J.T.," I rasped, "What are we going to do now?"

For a long while there was only silence and for the first time, I was sure J.T. wasn't going to answer me. I unconsciously found myself leaning around to look into J.T.'s eyes, unknowingly seeking the comfort I had begun to associate with his gaze. And then a sigh of his own erupted from his lips and his blood-shot, exhausted, blue eyes finally met mine. Even puffy and red, his eyes still shone with the determination of a natural survivor, and strength most would kill for. It was the biggest relief and the most chilling feeling when I finally caught his eyes.

"We find food…I'll give these guys a day to recover and then tomorrow night I'm going to pick five of the biggest of them and we're going to go out to the eastern part of town where all the big shots are, and steal as much food as we can…if they're anything like my uncle's house was, they have plenty they can spare," J.T. whispered, sitting back on his heels and giving a one shouldered shrug, "we'll also pick up any and every first aid kit we can get our hands on, and any medication we can find… extra blankets, if we're lucky, pillows and maybe even some soap and bathing supplies… maybe even board games for the younger children to play. But those will come after the things we really need and right now, food and medical supplies are at the top of the list."

I could do nothing but gap at the older boy for a several of minutes, unable to believe how nonchalantly he was talking about this.

"J.T. that doesn't sound easy at all!" I choked out before I could stop myself. I had unfortunately spoken a little more loudly then I probably should have in a cave, and as a result my voice bounced around for a couple of seconds causing some of the other kids to stir, but thankfully, no one woke up.

"Shh," J.T. hushed finger snapping up to cover his lips in the universal sign to be quiet.

"I know it doesn't sound easy Tom, but there really isn't another option: the fungus makes it impossible to grow anything, and the animals around here won't be any fatter then you or I."

It was at that moment when J.T. seemed to remember that he was still shirtless and he quickly remedied that, pulling on his now sleeveless shirt.

My eyes flickered down and caught one last sight of pale scared skin before the fabric once again covered it from view. I didn't think it was possible for anything to be as skinny as J.T.

My gaze caught J.T.'s, and for the first time in what felt like forever, the intense fear that had taken up residence in my life was absent.

"I'll keep everyone safe Tom, I promise," J.T. whispered…. and I believed him. His eyes were too sincere and to determined for me to do anything but believe that J.T. would keep us safe.

We sat in silence for a while, until the exhaustion began to creep back up on me. My eye's dropped closed and a giant yawn overpowered me.

I heard J.T. chuckle. "Get some sleep Tom. I'll keep watch tonight," he whispered gently, putting his hand on my shoulder and leaning me back against the wall of the cavern.

Relieved to finally be able to get some sort of sleep, I just nodded. After a couple of seconds, a smoky smell filled the cave, letting me know that J.T. had extinguished the fire.

My last thought before I passed out was 'I promise J.T., you won't have to take care of us alone. I'll be there with you through everything. That's how I'll pay you back for what you've done for Kelsey and me'.

The only promise I ever broke was my promise to make sure J.T. never did anything alone while trying to take care of us. But in the end, he was the only one strong enough to do what would need to be done in the near future to make sure everyone survived.

End Chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Well here's chapter 7! and yes i had to put a **nickleback song** in it! sorry guys but any time i'm writing this story i always have some nickleback song play as kind of an insperation, so it kind of fit to put it in the story. don't worry though this is the last song you'll see in this story :) i just know some parents sing to calm their kids down and since i'm kind of trying to build both a friend and father child relationship between J.T. and his kids i thought it would work.

As always let me know your thoughts on this chapter and i look foward to reading your reviews!

* * *

><p>CHAPTER 7<p>

My name is Tom Leighton and I'm 10 years 9 months 3 weeks and 2 days old.

It's been almost three full weeks since J.T. rescued nearly eighty kids from their basement prison where they had been awaiting a death sentence they had done nothing to deserve.

Three weeks since eighty kids became orphans… four weeks since Kelsey and I had become orphans.

Three weeks, and for the first time in months things are, if not good, then at least okay.

J.T. was a master of sneaking around and in the first night had managed to break into seven houses before they had so much that not even their stolen wheel barrels could carry it all.

J.T. had even managed to grab along with a good amount of food, eight first aid kits, - three of which had fully charged dermal regenerators in them – twelve blankets, five pillows, and even six board games!

With careful portioning, J.T. made sure that for the next few days all of us went to bed with, while not full stomachs, at least not complaining.

Unfortunately, after the first night when everyone had found out about the robberies, it became too dangerous to sneak into town. So dangerous that for the next four trips, J.T. went by himself. That in turn meant that not as much was gathered and our food supply soon began to dwindle.

That also meant that J.T. stepped up and started teaching us a few things…like how to slink through the shadows with out being noticed.

He taught that to even the younger kids.

He also began to teach most of the older ones a few fighting skills and, using the stolen phaser, he also taught some of us how to shoot.

For some reason he always included me in the fight lessons.

And that had _NOT_ gone over very well.

After the first lesson in which I got my butt handed to me because my opponent - a boy about a year younger then me, with pale skin, long pale blonde hair tied up in a low pony tail and very light pink eyes named Jackson - came at me from my blind spot and all but broke my ribs with a kick J.T. had been teaching us, it dawned on me that I wouldn't be much help in trying to provide for our group and that I'd probably only be a hindrance on missions.

My feelings weren't helped any when I overheard one of the older kids, an eleven year old boy named Ashton, whisper that he "didn't understand why J.T. was even bothering to train a one eyed klutz that would probably get them all killed first mission that he ever went on."

After that, I tried my hardest to avoid the fight lessons and got angry when J.T. tried to force me to join them.

I successfully avoided the next two lessons by purposefully taking too long to fetch water from a nearby stream, but after that J.T. ordered me to join the group.

I blew up. "You're not my father, you have no right to order me about!" I shouted, to everyone's surprise. "What, you think just because you brought us here, where we're just going to die slowly, that you can order us around like a bunch of performing monkeys? Did it ever occur to you that I just can't learn to fight?" By now I was in J.T.'s face, the feeling of inadequacy coming to a head and forcing me to get angry at the one person that was pressuring me to do something I knew I couldn't. "I mean, seriously, have you not noticed that I'm just no good at it? Take a good long look, J.T. Do you not see the missing eye? You know full well that I won't be any help in a fight, so how about you just stop bugging me and making me feel worse about myself by pressuring me to do something that I can't!"

"Tom!" A voice whispered from the gathering crowd around us and a small hand touched my arm.

"Get off me!" I shouted forcefully, ripping my arm from the person's light grip.

A small body collided with my back before bouncing off, the force of my pull having dragged the person clean off their feet.

I turned around quickly to see Kelsey sitting where she'd fallen at the front of the gathered kids. Her green eyes widened and sparkled with tears, her lips trembling.

"Kelsey…" I trailed off taking a couple steps towards my baby sister, my hand instinctively coming up to reach out for her.

She got up quickly turned and ran.

That's when it dawned on me what I had just done… everything I had just said. I didn't think…I didn't run after my sister… I didn't look at the glaring faces of all the people around me…. I didn't glance to where J.T. stood his face a mask of disapproval…I just ran.

I turned on my heel and sprinted for the mouth of the cave, trying to ignore the way the kids around me parted like I had some kind of vile disease, and if I touched them they would be infected as well. I ran for what felt like forever.

And soon found myself sitting at the edge of the creek, that we had been getting water from, sobbing into my knees.

The ragged sobs shook my thin frame so much that it hurt, and my chest clinched as it tried to pull in and hold a decent breath.

Hurting inside and out…. it felt like everything hit me just then. The tears I'd been holding back for my sister's sake about our parent's death, the grief of no longer having one of my eyes and becoming basically useless… it hadn't left my mind that I had been the one to almost get us caught the night we broke everyone out, the fear of everything that was going on…. the worry of how long we would have to live like this… everything chose that moment to come rushing back.

I didn't hear the footsteps approach, and barely even noticed when two arms wrapped around me, pulling me into a thin chest and holding me close. Never did the quieting shushes make their way to my ears.

It was a song that finally brought a bit of calm to me.

_"How the hell did we wind up like this  
>Why weren't we able<br>Too see the signs that we missed  
>And try to turn the tables"<em>

I didn't know this song…

_"I wish you'd unclench your fists  
>And unpack your suitcase<br>Lately there's been too much of this  
>Don't think its too late<em>

_"Nothin's wrong_  
><em>just as long as<em>  
><em>you know that someday I will<em>

_"Someday, somehow_  
><em>gonna make it all right but not right now<em>  
><em>I know you're wondering when<em>  
><em>(You're the only one who knows that)<em>  
><em>Someday, somehow<em>  
><em>gonna make it all right but not right now<em>  
><em>I know you're wondering when"<em>

And if I was honest, the voice singing wasn't the best right now – cracking with a prepubescent squeak. But at the same time, it carried the melody as if it had been born to do it, and left little doubt that when older it would be a nice voice. And by some miracle, listening to it whisper the fitting lyrics, I began to feel myself calm down.

_"Well I hoped that since we're here anyway  
>We could end up saying<br>Things we've always needed to say  
>So we could end up stringing<br>Now the story's played out like this  
>Just like a paperback novel<br>Lets rewrite an ending that fits  
>Instead of a Hollywood horror"<em>

A Hollywood horror…. didn't that just fit what we are going through to a T. Any other time, I would have snorted at the irony of that sentence; as it was now, I just buried my head into his shoulder, and tried my hardest not to start crying again.

_"Nothin's wrong  
>just as long as<br>you know that someday I will_

_Someday, somehow_  
><em>gonna make it all right but not right now<em>  
><em>I know you're wondering when<em>  
><em>(You're the only one who knows that)<em>  
><em>Someday, somehow<em>  
><em>gonna make it all right but not right now<em>  
><em>I know you're wondering when<em>  
><em>(You're the only one who knows that)"<em>

Impossibly, the voice softened until it was just the barest of whispers, and I became convinced that only I could hear it and nothing in the world was able to share the comfort of this melody…. this was my song… my comfort… and the only thing I had left to call mine besides my sister and the clothes on my back…nobody could hear it because it was mine and only mine to hear.

That also meant that I was the only one to hear the melody turn sorrowful and the voice become filled with all the emotions that just minutes before had been strangling the life out me.

_"How the hell did we wind up like this"_

How did it come to this? I asked myself that same question. How did my life go from happy with two wonderful parents and a bouncy little sister, to being orphans and wondering whether or not we would live to see the next day?

_"Why weren't we able  
>Too see the signs that we missed<br>And try to turn the tables"_

Why didn't I take heed of dad's warning that people grew violent and desperate when their lives were on the line? I remembered dad's nervousness that day at the square… I had noticed the unnecessary amount of guards; why didn't I get them out of there? Why didn't I do what J.T. had that night, breaking the children out of the basement? Why hadn't I turned the tables and stolen a phaser and taken the guards down instead of running?

_"Now the stories played out like this"_

Yeah, this was how the story had played out: me alone, trying to take care of my little sister. Only me… left half blind and tripping over my own feet on the best of days.

_"Just like a paperback novel  
>Lets rewrite an ending that fits<br>Instead of a Hollywood horror"  
><em>  
>Rewrite an ending that fits? Boy, did that sound good. If I could rewrite the ending, my dad would have been the one to find a cure for the fungus.<p>

He would have become famous and we all would have been moved to the second biggest house in the eastern district of town. And then later, without even running, my dad would have been elected Governor of Tarsus IV by a landslide. We would then be moved into the biggest house of the eastern distract… the Governor's mansion! And my mom and sister would be draped in pearls and diamonds, and treated like the queen and princess they always were. And there would never have been a famine or a bloody massacre… and then one day on my way to school in my big white stretch hover limo, I would look out the window dressed in the latest fashion and see _her_ walking along the sidewalk.

Her long, beautiful, brownish red hair would shimmer in bright sun light of a late winters day, naturally tight curls cascading down her back.

She'd be shivering and holding her books tight to her chest… I would ask the hover limo driver to pull over.

I would ask her if she wanted a ride and because it's cold outside, she would naturally say yes in a heartbeat, and I would get out in the cold just to hold the door for her like a perfect gentlemen.

We would ride to school laughing and talking and getting to know each other…I would finally have the best friend I always wanted. And then in time, I would grow up and follow in my dad's footsteps to become a scientist. I'd already be famous for my dad's work with the fungus, but I would make a name for myself by creating the next biggest thing in space travel. Maybe a compacted oxygen pill. You'd just take it, and then you could go in to space without the burden of a heavy space suit and be able to breath for long periods of time.

That was the ending that fit, not this harsh reality.

_"Nothing's wrong."_

Everything was wrong.

_"Just as long as  
>you know that someday I will<em>

_"Someday, somehow_  
><em>gonna make it all right but not right now"<em>

Why not right now?

_"I know you're wondering when,"_

For the first time, I glanced up to see who belonged to that voice that was fast becoming my only comfort.

I wasn't shocked to find myself looking into a pair of the deepest and brightest blue eyes I had ever seen.

J.T. was looking down at me with a sad and understanding gaze as he briefly tightened his hold on me again in a gesture of comfort.

Guilt struck me.

_"(You're the only one who knows that)  
>Someday, somehow<br>gonna make it all right but not right now  
>I know you're wondering when<br>(You're the only one who knows that)  
>I know you're wondering when<br>(You're the only one who knows that)  
>I know you're wondering when"<em>

I wasn't in this alone. Hadn't this blue-eyed boy been with me every step of the way? Hadn't he done more for both my sister and me then he should be capable of? Two years wasn't a big gap and yet that small age difference had never seemed so insurmountable.

And this boy…this man in front of me was doing something that no other twelve year old had ever done before.

He was protecting eighty kids by putting his life on the line every other night to get as much food as possible just to feed them. He was the thinnest of all of us, but he rarely ate anything himself unless he believed some could be spared.

And in the three weeks since all this had happened, I'd only seen the kid sleep maybe four times. And I'm not talking an hour power nap; I mean, he had honestly only fallen into a good deep and solid sleep four times in the past three weeks, and I was pretty sure that was just because he'd simply passed out from exhaustion.

Two years: not that big of a gap, and yet here I was blubbering like a baby into his shoulder and thinking of the way things should have been. It also didn't take long for me to remember that in my fantasy of what should have been…. there had been no J.T.

Guilt struck further into my heart. This kid had done everything imaginable for me, and I hadn't even given him his own happy ending in my fantasy…and I still had the nerve to ask him why he wouldn't make it all right, right now. What was wrong with me?

"Tom." J.T.'s voice broke the silence that had settled around us since he'd stopped singing. "You want to tell me what that was all about back there?"

I felt tears once again burn in my eyes, but pushed them back. I had had enough of wallowing in self-pity.

"J.T., I'm sorry about what I said back there, everything just caught up with me all of a sudden. I know that's no excuse for what I said…or what I did to Kelly. But with everything that's happened and then on top of that realizing I won't be any help whatsoever in trying to get us out of this mess, I just felt overwhelmed," I whispered shamefully, staring down at the barren soil we sat on.

"Tom, we're all overwhelmed by what's happening. Every single one of us. But what on earth makes you feel like you can't be of any help in trying to survive?" J.T. whispered back reaching over to hook his finger under my chin and tilting my head up until I was looking him in the eye. It was so reminiscent of what my dad use to do when I was this upset that I had to shove more tears away.

"J.T. I'm partially blind now; I can't see a thing from my left side. That means if anyone wants to over power me they just have to come at me from that side and I'll never even see them. You saw how Jackson almost broke my ribs when you first tried teaching me. I never saw that kick coming because it wasn't in my view. And… I'm not you; J.T., I'm not graceful enough to slink through the shadows like you do, because I'm blind completely in the dark… I was even before I got shot. I'm also by far the clumsiest person you'll ever meet, which means that I can't do all that dancing around to keep them in view that you do," I groaned, feeling the emotions welling back up. "And it's bad enough knowing that myself, but to hear someone confirming it was more then I could handle."

"What?" J.T. all but growled.

I jumped in surprise and fear; I had never heard J.T. make a sound like that. It reminded me of a wild animal. My eye locked with his, I could almost see sparks flying

"What do you mean what?" I squeaked in shock.

It took a second, but J.T. took a shuddering breath and finally his flaming blue eyes returned to their normal calm depth.

"Who confirmed your thoughts about not being good enough to help out?" J.T. asked, tone a little more clipped then normal.

I hesitated, feeling like a little kid about to rat out someone to their parents.

"No one J.T.," I glanced away again to stare at the gentle flowing water beneath us, "They didn't mean anything by it."

There was a tense silence for the next several minutes before J.T. let out a deep sigh of someone giving up.

"All right if you don't want to say who, I won't pressure you," he stated, "However… Tom, you got to have a bit of confidence…that was your first lesson. None of you were perfect, and yes I'll admit you have a few more obstacles to overcome then the other kids…"

At this I winced, but at J.T.'s sharp look, I managed to keep myself from feeling even more dejected then I already did.

"But with time you'll get better…a couple of lessons and you will start to notice a little less clumsiness. And moving through the dark isn't only a sight thing: sound plays a big part in it as well… but if it helps, you can get used to moving through the dark as easily as if you had born into it. And I'll be right there beside you the entire time Tom, you won't get us caught as long as I'm around, and in a few months, you won't get us caught whether I'm there or not. But for now, I need you to trust that I'm going to teach you what you need to know. Okay?'

I felt myself choke up again, so all I could do was nod.

"Good," J.T. sighed, "now lets get back to the cave. Because mister, you have some major apologizing to do to your sister, and I need to set up the team that's going with me tonight. We're too low on food, so we need to try and score more then I can get myself. Thankfully it's a new moon tonight, which means it will be a little easier to get into town."

I nodded again, and when J.T. stood up, I took his outstretched hand; he pulled me up and we began to make our way back to our temporary shelter.

It was almost sunset by the time we walked back in, and the first thing my eye landed on was Kelsey curled up next to Kevin, whose head was buried in the shoulder of a girl about a year older then me. The girl was actually one of the few I knew in this group. Her name was Raine, a half human, half Empathrainian, a race that can sense the emotion in other beings, and empathize with them. She had long, dark purple hair – in most of her race, it was normally straight, but she had inherited her father's wavy and thick bodied hair – moonlight pale skin, human shaped eyes that had the Empathrainian color changing ability that changed depending on the person closet to them's emotions, or who ever was feeling the strongest emotions. On normal days, her eyes were a deep maroon color that indicated neutrality, or that nobody around her was really feeling any strong emotion at that moment, but right now they shimmered a glistening orange color that meant someone near her was feeling deeply upset. It didn't take much to guess who that someone was.

Seeing that color was a sign of someone who was truly miserable. I found myself at Kelsey's side before the meaning had even settled into my brain.

"Kelsey," I groaned pulling her out of Raine's grasp and into a tight hug, "Kelsey, I am so, so sorry. I didn't mean to do what I did. I'm so sorry."

She struggled for a second to get out of my grasp but then the fight left her and she began sobbing into my shoulder. Probably the exact picture of what I must have looked like earlier crying into J.T.'s shoulder.

With out thinking, I began to hum the few lines of the song that I could remember.

It took a while but eventually, her sobs began to subside into soft sniffles.

"Tommy, you hurt me," Kelsey whimpered and a pain unlike anything I had felt before pierced my heart.

_What have I done_, I thought to myself, my grip unconsciously tightening on my sister.

"I know Kelsey, and I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to, and I swear I will never do it again. Oh goodness, Kelsey I'm so sorry," I choked holding her as close to me as I could.

_How could I have ever done that to her…how? I'm supposed to be protecting_ _her._

Tears burned in my eye for what must have been the hundredth time that day.

"Kelsey I'm so sorry. I'm a horrible big brother and I'm sorry; please Kelly, please forgive me," I whispered.

For a beat there was nothing but silence.

I could feel the eyes of every one in the cave watching us, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"You're not a horrible bother Tommy…you're the best big brother in the world, and I do forgive you," Kelsey whispered, and suddenly she was hugging me back.

Relief flooded through me and I squeezed her as tight as I possibly could.

"Thank you Kelly, that means more to me then you'll ever know, and I promise, it won't happen again," I whispered into her ear.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, not noticing that J.T. sent everyone back to what they where doing with one sharp look.

When we did finally pull back, I gave Kelsey a small smile and ruffled her hair. She grinned back and swatted my hand away, before moving off to join a game of apples to apples with a few other kids.

Unconsciously, I glanced back over to Raine, and was surprised to see her looking at me. Her eyes had gone from their glistening orange color to a pale blue that if I remembered right meant contentment was in the air.

She met my gaze and gave a small nod as if telling me my hunch was right and a look of approval crossed her face before she turned and went to talk to someone else.

"Hey everyone, listen up! Can I get your attention for a second please," J.T.'s voice suddenly sounded through the cave.

Almost immediately, the chatter died down and the games stopped.

This wasn't unusual as J.T. often made announcements before going off on a mission.

"It recently came to my attention that there has been some bad mouthing of other kids in this group." J.T.'s stern voice echoed through the cave and I felt myself stiffen at his words…he was seriously bringing this up now?

"To whomever is bad mouthing someone: - you know who you are and I only have one thing to say to you: grow up. We're not in school anymore and as much as we all would like to pretend otherwise, we are in a dangerous situation that we're only going to get through safely by depending on each other. We need to trust each other and get along. I know it's impossible for us to like everyone in a group this big, but guess what: you're going to have to learn to tolerate each other real fast, or you're going to get us all killed. And yeah, I'm telling you this to scare you a bit, but that doesn't make it any less true. Work together; if you see someone that needs help in some areas, you bring it to me and I'll worry about it…. you do not go gossiping about it like you're on some lousy soup opera. Do you understand?"

J.T. glanced around with a harsh gaze, taking in every nodding head, not missing a single detail.

"Good… everyone in this cave, from the youngest to the oldest, is important. We are all in this together and we are all going to be useful, despite what some may think, in getting out of this mess. So if you have looked at any one in this room and thought that they're only going to get us killed, they're so young, so clumsy, so small, so different… well then, you're wrong, and one day your life may very well depend on that person. Respect each other if nothing else. That's all I ask." J.T.'s authoritative voice left no room for argument, and once again everyone nodded.

I gulped and glanced around; almost immediately my eyes fell upon Ashton. He was looking at me, his gaze contemplative and…apologetic. He didn't notice I had seen him looking but that was all right, because for the first time in and long time I felt the urge to smile.

"All right, now on to other matters," J.T. said, glancing around at everyone. "I need the following people to meet me at the front of the cave in five minutes. We need to get food tonight, and I can't carry it all. Bring the wheelbarrows. Raine, T'Entreia, Joe, Spencer, and Tom. You guys are with me tonight." He waited for us to nod and walk towards the back of the cave where we kept the wheel barrels before continuing on.

"Ashton, you're in charge while we're gone. I showed you yesterday how to portion out the remaining food: feed every one by ten, younger ones go to bed as soon as they're done eating, and the older ones can go to bed later if they wish, but assign no less then four people to keep watch. I'd prefer it be people ten or over, but nobody younger then nine sits watch and they have to have someone older with them at all times. Got it?"

"Understood, J.T.," Ashton nodded with a small smile. "Be careful out there tonight."

"We will be. Thanks," J.T. smiled back.

By this time, we had all gathered at the mouth of the cave. Joe, Spencer, T'Entreia, and I handled the wheelbarrows as Raine shifted uncomfortably, once again asking us if any of us needed help.

She had always been like this, hating when she didn't have something to do while everyone else was working.

"Relax Raine," Spencer whispered, a small fond smile pulling at the corner of his lips, "has anyone ever told you you're too nice? I think Joe, Tom, and I are strong enough guys to handle an empty wheelbarrow and T'Entreia is a Vulcan so she could probably pick all four of these things up fully load in one hand."

T'Entreia's voice echoed around us in a monotone from where she stood at the far end of the group, back against the wall and eyes on J.T. as he made his way over. "That would be a logical assumption if I was fully grown and in the best of health. However, because I am still only a child and severally malnourished, I believe I would only be able to hold two wheelbarrows, and I would very much have to use both arms, and only one could be full."

A grin pulled at J.T.'s lips as he overheard that last comment.

"Don't sell yourself short, T'Entreia," J.T. joked as he reached over to take the wheelbarrow from her.

"What an illogical comment J.T.; I do not believe I understand it, how can one 'sell themselves short', and indeed why would they wish to sell themselves at all?" She asked, her gaze locked with J.T.'s, and her head slightly cocked inquisitively – and probably unconsciously – to one side. The Vulcan picture of confusion though the rest of her face and body language remained as stiff and neutral as normal.

J.T. grinned and winked.

"I'll explain it to you later; right now, it's time to get down to business," he said, straightening and becoming the picture of seriousness.

"Let's get going," he whispered, moving out of the cave and almost immediately disappearing into the shadows.

One by one we all did the same: Raine following first, then Spencer, and Joe.

I was just about to follow when I turned around in time to catch something that stopped me in my tracks. It had been brief and out of the corner of my eye, but I knew what I had seen: the lightest hint of green coloring T'Entreia cheeks.

I didn't have time to ponder on this though, as I fell into the shadows, trying my hardest to keep up and not trip or get lost, since I couldn't see anything.

It was a lost cause from the start though, and before long Raine, sensing my fear of getting separated, dropped back to stand beside me. She traded a glance with T'Entreia, and with a silent nod, T'Entreia took the wheelbarrow from me, and Raine grabbed my hand to guide me through the shadows.

We stayed like that, quietly moving through the shadows, for what must have been two hours, Raine holding onto my hand and guiding me around things in my path that I couldn't see. J.T. determinedly led us forward, glancing back every couple of minutes to make sure everyone was still doing well. He, Spencer, Joe, and T'Entreia pushed their wheelbarrows as quietly as they could around trees and other obstacles. But soon, the glow of street lamps became visible and J.T. stopped.

"Leave three of the wheelbarrow here," he whispered,. "If we get caught, they'll only slow us down, and if we have to leave quickly, at least we can still sneak back here and pick them up again. When the first wheelbarrow gets full, we'll send someone back with it to pick up another one. Everyone is to be completely silent: there will be no talking from this point on. Don't get too excited, and try and grab only the necessities. We don't want to have too much weighting us down. Do you understand?"

Tension began to fill the air as each of us stared J.T. in the eyes and nodded.

"Good then. Let's get to work," he whispered, and turned to walk towards the town, his hands grasped tightly on the wheelbarrow.

End Chapter 7


End file.
